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The purpose of this paper is to provide a research synthesis of findings drawn from studies of teacher leadership published in English-based journals from 2000 to 2018. The goal of the research synthesis was to develop new insights into teacher leadership through a theoretical discussion and to identify emerging themes for future research.

The methodology employed in this study was systematic review. The study first identifies a body of relevant literature and research on teacher leadership from the English-based journals from 2000 to 2018. Information concerning the nature of the studies as well as substantive findings was extracted from each of the articles. Synthesis of findings was accomplished by identifying key themes in the literature.

The synthesis yielded four themes: “the notion of teacher leadership,” “the theoretical perspectives are used for understanding teacher leadership,” “the factors are influencing the development of teacher leadership,” and “the approach to build and develop leadership capacity.”

This paper attempts to offer a critical review on the current literature and research on teacher leadership, reveal if there are any gaps in the ongoing debate, and identify the agenda for future research. This paper not only explores “what there is,” but also examines “what is missing,” and “what could be improved upon” by reviewing research findings that emerged in the teacher leadership literature produced from 2000 to 2018. The paper could shed light on the existing research about teacher leadership.

In today’s educational climate of data, differentiation, and accountability, teacher leadership is essential; and professional development schools (PDSs) offer distinctive settings for teacher leader practice and development. Building on chapter one, this chapter defines teacher leadership in PDSs, introduces distributed leadership theory, and provides a brief history of teacher leadership in the United States before asserting several characteristics that render PDSs ideal settings for studying teacher leadership. Instead of asking why we should study teacher leadership in PDSs and other school–university partnerships, a better question might be, why wouldn’t we?

This chapter synthesizes Chapters 13–17. After distinguishing teacher leaders as individuals who enact various functions of teacher leadership in today’s schools, the chapter describes three themes related to teacher leader preparation and development in professional development schools (PDSs): (1) teacher leaders are made not born, (2) school–university partnerships create the conditions for developing high-quality teacher leaders, and (3) PDSs have the potential to develop teacher leaders as teacher educators. The chapter concludes with recommendations on how teacher leadership in PDSs can be strengthened.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way informal groups rise and operate in the Teacher Association in a Secondary Vocational School Unit in Greece. More specifically, the way the role of the head teacher, the school culture and teachers’ emotional intelligence impacts these groups is investigated.

Qualitative research through in-depth interviews with teachers and the head teacher as well as the researchers’ participatory observation has been conducted, in order to support the selected method of the case-study.

The findings showed how both positive and negative informal groups rise and function in the Teacher Association. The role of the head teacher emerges as a very significant factor that influences the emergence and the preservation of such groups. The school culture has a bidirectional relation with the existence and quality of informal groups. Emotional intelligence also plays an important role in forming informal groups and in the quality of actions of these groups.

This study covers a significant gap in the international literature of group dynamics in a Teacher Association and provides practitioners with valuable insights regarding the underexamined factors that lead to the formation, operation and preservation of informal groups, the study of which can lead to the development of sophisticated scales of measurement of these dynamics by future researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of teacher leadership on the enactment of educational reforms in southeastern China. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders in schools is structured to support reform enactment at the school level.

The research was conducted in three case study sites in one school district in Shenzhen, China. Low, moderate and high academic achieving schools which had engaged teacher leaders in instructional reforms were selected. A combined total of 34 senior, middle and teacher leaders participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed through a comparative coding process.

Across the three schools, teacher leaders without positional authority strongly influenced the instructional reforms. Their influence was strongest when bolstered by a combination of formal recognition systems, opportunities to lead projects that were directly related to the reform efforts, and mentorship systems that skilled novice teachers in reform-related skills and experienced teachers in leading reform enactment. Mechanisms and structures embedded in schools, when coherently focused on selected reforms, supported the efficacy of teachers without formal authority. And, middle leaders’ impact was enhanced when working collaboratively with formal and teacher leaders.

This research yields insight on teacher leaders’ influence of reform. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders can be structured as a collective that impacts on reform enactment at the school level. And, it illuminates teacher leadership in a Chinese context other than the scrutinized Shanghai school system.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the instructional leadership practices and structure in Singapore primary schools.

The study employs a qualitative approach. Data were collected from interviews of 30 Singapore primary school principals and 25 working-day observations of five principals. A grounded theory method was utilized to analyze the qualitative data.

The instructional leadership roles of principals can be categorized into four key themes: vision development and implementation, physical and organizational structure, professional development, and leading and managing instruction. Importantly, the study illuminates a hybrid structure of instructional leadership in which both hierarchical and heterarchical elements exist.

The current study expands the global knowledge base on instructional leadership by providing indigenous knowledge of how instructional leadership is enacted in Singapore schools. Simultaneously, this study suggests an agenda for future research on instructional leadership.

Recognizing the importance of developing professional identities and valuing the work of school-based teacher educators, this chapter outlines a specific context in which teacher leaders self-identified and worked across contexts to support teacher development within their schools. This chapter’s primary focus includes the perceptions and experiences of teacher leaders in school–university partnerships connected to one university in one identified role: liaison-in-residence. Three themes resulted from analysis of transcripts, journals, and memos: teacher leader identity developed within democratic leadership; teacher leader positionality stirs tensions in professional identity; and service and equity as key guideposts for leading and learning.

The purpose of this study is to construct a scale that is contextually suitable for measuring early childhood leadership in China.

Following a standard scale development procedure, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were addressed. Qualitative data was collected from 21 semistructured interviews with formal and informal teacher leaders in Xiamen City, China. Using survey data of 120 respondents and 305 respondents, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted twice to determine the underlying factorial structure of the scale. A further sample of 317 respondents were used to test the latent structure and validity of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis.

Based on the results from reliability and validity tests, this study indicates that the scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties. A three-factor model was determined, including staff management and development, peer learning and support and communication with parents.

The scale is the first of its kind for measuring early childhood leadership in China.

While in everyday practice, school leaders are often involved in social relationships with a variety of stakeholders both within and outside their own schools, studies on school leaders’ networks often focus either on networks within or outside schools. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which principals occupy similar positions in their school’s network and the larger district network. In addition, the authors examined whether principals’ centrality in both networks can be attributed to demographic characteristics and transformational leadership (TL).

Using social network analysis, correlational and regression analysis, and an advanced social network technique, namely p2 modeling, the authors analyzed data collected among 708 educators in 46 Dutch elementary schools. The authors also offer a visualization of the district social network to explore principals’ relationships with other principals in the district.

Results suggest that principals who occupy a central position in their school’s advice network are also more likely to occupy a central position in their district’s collaborative leadership network. Moreover, TL was found to affect the extent to which principals are central in both networks.

The study is unique as it simultaneously explores principals’ social relationships in schools and the larger district. Moreover, the authors advance the knowledge of TL as a possible mechanism that may shape the pattern of these relationships, thereby connecting two streams of literature that were until now largely disconnected. Limitations to the study warrant further qualitative and longitudinal research on principals’ social relationships in schools, districts, and the larger community.