Conditions for teacher leadership and professional development in challenging circumstances

This chapter reports on findings from a 3-year funded research project aimed at examining conditions for teacher leadership in challenging circumstances. A mixed-method research design was devised including three phases of data collection: a national survey (phase 1), focus groups with teachers and students and semi-structured interviews with principals (phase 2); and the development and evaluation of a professional development course in 5 schools (phase 3). This chapter reports on findings from the first phase of data collection through an online questionnaire administered nationwide between February and May 2012 (N= 2702). In general, ambiguity and ambivalence in teachers’ views and perceptions of leadership emerged from the data namely in regard to the encouragement they get to make decisions and to be involved in projects at school as well as to exercise leadership at the department level. Implications of the findings are discussed.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalNational Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562