Teacher leadership : how teachers in Polish schools understand teacher leadership

During the last two decades there is a growing interest in leadership both in theory and practice in the area of education. It is because it brings a more adequate understanding of schools as organizations and helps to run schools in such a way that better suits the needs of students. Leadership becomes an important issue in debates on educational change and improvement at the national and European levels. The specificity of educational context determines the popularity of leadership theories that underline empowerment and involvement of different groups in organization in leadership processes. Many authors try to transfer to the educational context such concepts of leadership as: dissolved, distributive, participative, collaborative, etc. Such theories define leadership as a phenomenon that is not limited to the personal role of a leader but is rather a broader organizational process that involves (potentially) all members of the organization. Because of that teacher leadership seems to be a key element of such an educationally specific understanding of leadership. It is especially crucial also because of the fact that the central aims of schools as organizations have to be individual human development and learning. Teacher leadership may no doubt help in stimulating learning and development understood as interactive social processes. The problem is that the concept of “teacher leadership” can be understood in many different ways that can lead to completely different practical actions in schools and classrooms. The research presented in this paper aims to identify the understandings of the “teacher leadership” concept in the thinking of active teachers. The research was carried out in the first half of 2018 with participation of more than 200 teachers from Polish schools. Its results are presented and discussed with a special focus on practical recommendations for teacher training and professional development as well as for school management and leadership