Lifelong professional development: empowering foreign language teachers

Current and future teachers like us and in general all the subjects involved in the challenging world of education need to keep in mind the essential role of leadership skills and their empowerment not only in teachers but also in the students. We assume collaborative work as a key strategy to achieve real leadership skills given its high relevance to developing social and cognitive skills that reinforce the acquisition of leadership skills. This paper basically attempts to follow Matshediso’s (2008) statement which focuses mainly on teachers leadership and the way how professional training help to enhance this ability not only in teachers but also in the rest of actors involved in the process, especially the students in early cognitive stages(from birth to 9). It also provides personal assumptions about the topic and finally exposes the main implications of leadership empowerment for future teachers. Following this line, the present paper works essentially around these basic questions: 1) Why is it important to be more than a teacher - to be a leader for our students? 2) How do teacher leaders include diversity in their teaching practices? 3) How can teachers as leaders improve themselves?1. Introduction ……………………….………………………..1-22. Our assumption ………………………………………….....2-53. Leadership and implication for the future ……………........5-64. Conclusion …………………………………………………6-75. References …………………………………………………8-9PregradoLicenciado(a) en Lenguas Extranjeras con Énfasis en InglésMonografía