Teacher Leadership in International Contexts

This book addresses the critical gaps among understandings of teacher leadership across organizational and cultural contexts. It challenges the use of the term teacher leadership as if there is a widely shared understanding of what it is and what it means for exercising influence and making decisions. The book describes how implicit meanings and competing assumptions about teacher leadership may contribute to uncertainty and confusion in school communities. The authors caution against the incorporation of teacher leadership in international policy making discussions without adequate consideration of contextual, organizational, historical, and cultural differences that may lead to school community members struggling to accommodate the concept or, worse, ignoring other frameworks for facilitating more culturally appropriate decision making.