Emotional intelligence and teacher leaders

The purpose of this study was to understand principals’ perceptions and perceived attributes of strong teacher leaders, determine how these attributes link to emotional intelligence and learn how these attributes are developed. In this study, emotional intelligence will be defined as “the abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others” (Goleman, 2001, p.14). This study summarizes data collected through semi-structured interviews with 11 school principals and assistant principals from a variety of schools, school districts and across multiple states. Overall, this study lead to three main discoveries: 1) top perceived attributes of teacher leaders are closely connected to EI skills 2) teacher leader development strategies that best support EI are comprehensive, job-embedded, sustained over time, peer-focused, goal-focused, differentiated for teacher’s needs and leverage a variety of practices and tools, and 3) teacher leaders with high EI have a positive impact on their schools