Wildy and Clarke

Wildy, H. and Clarke,S. [2011] Instructional Leadership. In Robertson, J & Timperley, H. [eds] [2011] Leadership and Learning. Los Angeles: Sage.

This text, while not using the term teacher leadership, focuses on the 'what', how' and 'effects' of  Instructional Leadership at the teacher level.  While outlining benefits it also highlights notes of caution.  For instance:

'...Timperley[ 2008] warns that sharing leadership with the view to building a critical mass of staff with knowledge and responsibility for improving student learning, what she calls the leadership-plus framework, is a risky business.  She argues that such sharing of leadership can simply lead to the greater distribution of incompetence.' [2011: 148]

The text is useful in highlighting clear examples of teacher leadership, outlining some of the challenges, explaining the role that senior leaders can play, and  positioning teacher leadership with other key Leadership for Learning areas such as distributed leadership, shared leadership, parallel leadership, collaborative cultures  and professional learning communities.

Reflective Journal Blog 

Use the two Reflective Activities on page 153 to guide your thoughts for an entry to your Reflective Journal Blog on Teacher Leadership.  You may or may not wish to complete the exercise involving drawing up and rating four or five leadership tasks teachers are given, but your entry should involve your comments on the importance of the  'aligment of discretion, support and accountability' to teacher leadership. As always you should make relevant references to the literature.  Feel free to adapt the topic to your specifc context if your workplace is not a school.