Evolving perspective(s) of teacher
leadership: An exploration of teacher
leadership for Inclusion at preservice
level in the Republic of Ireland
King, FionaORCID: 0000-0001-5749-1435
(2017)
Evolving perspective(s) of teacher
leadership: An exploration of teacher
leadership for Inclusion at preservice
level in the Republic of Ireland.
International Studies in Educational Administration, 45
(3).
pp. 5-21.
ISSN 1324-1702
There is an increasing body of literature that extols the virtues of teacher leadership despite
the concept remaining underdeveloped and under-theorised (King & Stevenson 2017; Torrance 2013).
Acknowledging the dearth of literature exploring the development of teacher leadership at preservice
level, this article reports on results from a qualitative study which employed Bond’s (2011) theoretical
framework for preparing preservice teachers in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) to become teacher leaders
for inclusion. This study adopted a self-study approach (Vanassche & Kelchtermans 2015) involving
two teacher educators, in the ROI, where the researcher, being relatively new to teacher education, was
supported by a critical friend in the design, implementation and evaluation of the modules. Results
strongly indicate that student teachers felt prepared to exercise leadership for inclusion through lived
experiences of leadership, understanding change, being research informed and having many
opportunities for reflection. This article argues for unlocking the potential for leadership for inclusion
to begin with student teachers and concludes by suggesting that this article may help to address the
paucity of literature around teacher leadership at preservice level and in particular teacher leadership
for inclusion.
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
teacher leadership for inclusion; teacher leadership at preservice level;developing
teacher leadership; organic leadership; distributed leadership