Abstract:
Classroom teacher leadership is a very broad concept that evolved over years and
includes various concepts in the paradigm of education leadership (York-Barr &
Duke, 2004: 255). Two concepts in the education leadership paradigm, which are
closely related to and interlinked with classroom teacher leadership, are
instructional leadership and distributive leadership. A new school of thought
emphasises the importance of the classroom teacher as an instructional leader
(Horgn & Loeb, 2010: 66). The only way that the classroom teacher can assume
this required role as instructional leader is within a distributive leadership
environment and therefore, distributive leadership is at the core of instructional
leadership (Hoadley, Christie & Ward, 2009: 377). We can therefore conclude that
classroom teacher leadership refers to classroom teachers who teach and lead
(York-Barr & Duke, 2004: 267). Classroom teacher leadership is the type of quality
leadership required to create effective schools.
In recent studies done in South African schools it was, however, clear that although
research proposes that the classroom teacher should assume leadership roles
within a distributive leadership environment, classroom teacher leadership has not
yet realised in the schools studied. The gap in the literature is that it shows what
should happen, it indicates that it is not happening in some South African schools
but it does not indicate how it should happen.
This study aimed through a qualitative, case study design to investigate classroom
teacher leadership in effective top-performing schools in the Pretoria area in the
Gauteng province. Through semi-structured interviews the experiences of
classroom teachers and their principals on classroom teacher leadership revealed
that classroom teacher leadership is evident in these top-performing, secondary
schools. Through their experiences various classroom teacher leadership practices
could also be identified shedding light on how classroom teacher leadership can be
implemented and promoted in order to create the quality leadership required for an
effective school.
