A former full-time teacher who now splits time between teaching and research calls for a greater role for teachers in education policy development.
I was a teacher leader before I was a teacher — at least that is how I described it while interviewing for my first teaching job.
During my sophomore year in college, I volunteered to drive a university van to drop off preservice teachers for their field placements. We spent the semester working one day a week in classrooms throughout northwest Ohio. I picked up and dropped off my colleagues each Tuesday. I was convinced that this made me a teacher leader — someone who my fellow preservice teachers depended upon, if only for a safe ride in a big brown van.
Since then, I’ve held many titles with varying leadership responsibilities: head coach, mentor, adviser, association representative, principal intern, and cooperating teacher. I was even elected by my fellow educators as a board member of the National Education Association, which represents 3 million educators nationwide. Clearly these roles made me a teacher leader, if only in name and title.
But who gets to define teacher leadership? Do I? Or does some group have to convey a title to enable me to be called a teacher leader?
Recently, my responsibilities shifted because I am now a hybrid teacher, someone who splits time between the classroom and serving as director of a national research center. I’ve been able to carve out a unique position: a practitioner who is able to provide policy research and resources to educators around the country.
As a hybrid teacher, I’m now less visible in my own school building but more capable of supporting teachers nationwide. If I’m less visible in my own school, am I less of a teacher leader?
My leadership role has given me an eye-opening, unique perspective on education reform and how changes in my profession will shape the policies and practices in my own classroom.
How do we expand teacher voice without losing the authentic experience of being in the classroom on a daily basis?
Being a hybrid teacher has enabled me to expand my personal knowledge of the teaching profession and speak for my fellow educators in policy discussions. At the same time, I’ve also been able to remain in the classroom, grounded in the realities of day-to-day teaching.
The past year has shown me that there is a definite need for educators like me in shaping education policy. So-called researchers and think tanks dominate the conversation, and teachers like me are often left out of the conversation — something I find extremely frustrating and disappointing.
Adding teacher input in policy circles is important, but how do we expand teacher voice without losing the authentic experience of being in the classroom on a daily basis?
Empowering teacher voice
The most recent MetLife survey paints a thought-provoking picture where half (51%) of the teachers said they are at least somewhat interested in teaching in the classroom part-time, combined with other roles or responsibilities. Twenty-three percent said they feel extremely or very interested in a part-time option. How do we make this happen? Is a hybrid role feasible given diminishing investment in schools by states across the country?
Barnett Berry and the Center for Teaching Quality have advocated for advancing the profession through teacherpreneurship, where teachers assume additional roles while remaining in the classroom. Such roles clearly appeal to teachers who neither aspire to be administrators nor want to remove themselves completely from teaching.
Another option is to increase the visibility of teachers in policy making through teacher voice. Hundreds of groups are seeking to harness educators’ voices to push for practitioner-led change in schools. Some of the most famous include Teach Plus, Educators 4 Excellence, and the VIVA project. These groups vary widely in their goals and intentions, but all seek to increase teacher input in education policy. In my home state of Michigan, the Southeast Michigan Galileo Consortium and the Galileo Institute for Teacher Leadership at Oakland University are working to increase the presence of its 800 leaders in policy decisions.
I feel lucky to have a small voice in shaping education policy. The next step is helping to empower other teachers to add their voices in meaningful dialogue about what it means to be a teacher leader and how teacher leaders can drive education policy discussion.
Indeed, teacher leadership is something that has stuck with me, even though I no longer drive a brown university van.
Citation: Backtalk: Teacher leaders want to do both. Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (7), 80.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel J. Quinn
DANIEL J. QUINN is an economics teacher at Grosse Pointe North High School, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., and executive director of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. He also is a 2012-13 PDK Emerging Leader.
