As described in my original posting above, I will be posting these questions throughout the period that this discussion forum is open. Here's the first one, posed by Jackie Wheeler: "I am really interested in finding out more about supporting STEM resource teachers to serve as leaders within their school to strength STEM education within. What suggestions do you all have?"

Please respond to this posting with your suggestions. Thank you!

During the Expert Panel, panelist Barnett Berry provided participants with a link to a paper he had published in the March 2019 issue of Kappan: Teacher Leadership: Prospects and Promises. 

This question was submitted by Dr. Bruce Alberts, former President of the National Academy of Sciences (addressing the panelists):: "besides individual teachers like you having influence on specific issues, how do we get school districts -- say both school boards and superintendents  -- to regularly seek feedback/ideas for improvements from a GROUP of their outstanding teachers?"

Six years ago, I was offered the opportunity to go from a traditional classroom of college prep students to having total oversight to design and carry out a self paced, customized science program for our alternative school.  I had worked with many of our at risk students in the regular classroom and the director asked me if I was interested.  The risks: working with a larger group of at risk students, not having everyone in the same place at the same time, dealing with a lot more than just school curriculum.  The benefits: I get to try things not possible in a regular class - smaller groups.  I don't need as much of everything when there are only a few students doing an activity at a time.  I get total latitude to try what I want.  I really get to know the students.  Working with a smaller staff is better too - we can problem solve together across the curriculum.

My school recently developed a 'Makerspace' room, which is a resource that encourages engineering-based approaches to problem-solving and critical thinking.  It is a relatively new idea I think, and it is brand new in our district.  (We are also a very small, rural school, so that may affect my perception of how new this concept is.)  I worked with the art department and the computer science department to design a project for my physical science students.  As the first teacher to bring a full class into this room and use this resource, I am trying to serve as a leader to encourage other subjects to bring engineering into their classroom.

I am the only biology teacher at my school, so any leadership-type roles that I could fill would require leading teachers from outside of my 'department'.  I am also only a fourth-year teacher, and my lack of experience makes taking on leadership roles difficult.  Whether it's because more experienced teachers don't like taking advice from new teachers, or because I simply don't have the confidence in my own skills to feel like I have earned that leadership, I cannot say.  Probably a little of both.  

However, getting out of my classroom, working with other teachers, and trying something that other teachers in my district haven't done yet was very rewarding for me professionally, but also for my students.  The novelty of the project made students automatically more engaged and excited.  The other teachers were excited that I asked for their help and opinions.  And my principal was excited that I was taking advantage of the new resources that our district worked so hard to provide.  

I would say at my school it is both.  Our school distributes leadership, and admin promotes the idea of taking the lead on projects and programs to push the school forward and improve student outcomes. But the school environment also has embedded this egalitarian idea.  When a teacher receives an award or is involved in programs that will benefit all, very little mention is made or recognition given.  At least in my school many are in their own silo, and for many they see no benefit in what others are doing or attempting to share.   For instance a different content area teacher sees no benefit in the strategies I use because I teach science.  That is the big reason why I am getting  teachers involved with projects  and nominating them for awards in an attempt to breakdown these walls.  I am also, working at building capacity in groups of teachers that are interesting in growing.

Brett, I have to say that I think a large part of it is the disciplinary isolation we see in a lot of schools. I had the same experience as a high school physics teacher in my first school where I was the only physics teacher. Because my leadership stemmed so strongly from my teaching of physics (i.e., I felt really confident not so much in general instructional strategies, but in teaching particular topics and making them relevant to students' lives), I think it was difficult for other teachers to see how my leadership could benefit them. Hence, I'm guessing that this leadership isolation is common at schools that not only don't have distributed leadership, but also that might not value integration in general. 

STEM in general often has a lot to come up against, not just in terms of students' feelings toward it, but in our colleagues' and our administrators' views of it. If I recall correctly, the majority of school administrators do not come from STEM fields.

The fact that a STEM teacher leader identifies as a STEM-person might be perceived by others as a barrier to permitting them to lead, in general.

As Huizenga and Sczcesiul have found, teacher leadership is a “socially distributed phenomena” that develops over time as teachers gain efficacy; to do so, they must have “repeated opportunities” to reflect on what they master in the context of structured collaboration. Whether in the form of well-designed lesson study or similar practices, this type of professional development helps teachers get more comfortable with “feelings of failure” and “cop[ing] with difficult situations.”[i]To provide these learning opportunities, political and system leaders, like those in British Columbia, may need to rethink the purpose and focus of their teaching policies. 

Rod Allen, former Superintendent of Learning for SD79 (Cowichan Valley) in British Columbia, reports that his districthas placed a moratorium on formal teacher evaluation. “It was not helping teachers improve,” Allen noted, “and it was like a dark cloud hanging over their heads—keeping them from taking learning risks in their classrooms.” Teachers now routinely invite their colleagues as well as administrators into their classrooms to see new strategies. “It was the de-privatization of practice over time—not the private evaluations of individual teachers—that got us the gains in student learning,” Allen said.[ii]

I am certain that de-isolating teachers is the key to breaking up egalitarian culture. And administrators have a key role in doing so.

[i]Szczesiul, S. A., & Huizenga, J. L. (2015). Bridging structure and agency: Exploring the riddle of teacher leadership in teacher collaboration. Journal of School Leadership, 25(2), 404.

[ii]Allen, R. (2016). Personal communication. August 22.

Other factors that may contribute to the issue of credibility in/out of the school - 

When do teachers take their lunch break? Is it just the STEM teachers then the English teachers, etc.  There are no conversations happening. We don't really get to talk and find out what others are doing in/out of the school.  

Does the school have multiple buildings?  I am with the CTE course teachers (auto, building trades, biomedical, welding) and we have had many successful collaborations and know what each other's skills/leadership abilities are because we all take the same lunch period.

What is the definition of leadership by the administration?  There are committees but do they truly listen and use what the teachers say or are they just the messengers to the rest of the staff?

Do they nominate/recognize the teacher leaders? or are they afraid to show "favoritism"?  That seems to be a problem.  As Jose said, recognizing others by nominations is a good start.  We have to support each other.  Send emails, contact the paper, etc.

Jose,  

    I have to say that as I read many of the comments in this thread, including this one by you, I find myself wanting one more level of concrete detail, to understand what people are reporting or advocating.  If I am implementing some research-based strategy that I think is working pretty well — how do the other teachers in my school get to hear about it?  One of the threads in this discussion has explored "disciplinary isolation," and that's an actual problem — but pedagogical silence seems to me often to play an important role. The reasons for it are easy enough to understand and emphathize with  — so a kind of leadership that might be needed is one of vulnerability — "I can't claim to have all the answers, but here's a thing I've been trying, and this is what's happening... " Ice-breaking skill, or what an old mentor once called "the courage to be wrong."  Or so I think. 

My vision began with the goals I had for my students and the experiences I wanted to create for them to inspire them to pursue careers in physics and engineering.  From there my circle grew to include how to improve the school and the academic outcomes of all students by engaging with my colleagues and inspiring them to be the best teachers they can be.  My circles kept on getting bigger eventually reaching the state, national and international levels.  In whatever role I took my north star and vision always connected back to what is best for students to inspire and engage them.  Without a vision you cannot have the 'why' of what you are trying to accomplish.  How does one develop a vision as a teacher leader?  It starts with passion for the that one cause that most inspires you.  For me it was creating access for my students in the STEM fields, were minorities and especially women minorities are under represented.  That was my call to action and is the foundation for everything I have done in my career.

School districts can rethink school schedules to create time for teachers to both teach and engage in collaborative efforts to improve instruction. But most do not as you find in top performing nations like Singapore (thx for reminding us, Margo!)....where teachers can spend just as much time 15-17 hours a week of collaborative work outside of the classroom as they spend teaching in their own!  Even the Opportunity Culture is just for a few teachers in a building - and often times it means other teachers have larger class sizes. We are still thinking inside the box...the one teacher-one classroom mode of organizational time and space as opposed to what you find in Singapore as well as in other professions in America. For example, teaching for 21st-century learning is too compli­cated for one teacher to do it all — and the work of schooling demands a larger array of experts, specialists, and generalists working as a team. The United States has 7 million medical professionals, but only 700,000 physicians — who practice in 130 different specialties. These doc­tors are supported by many talented and well prepared professionals such as nurses, physical therapists, and biomedical engineers as well as a wide range of other skilled people an and apprentices who play important supportive roles.

In the future we imagine the same for education where 3 million teachers collaborate with a wide variety of experts and other professionals from outside of PK-12 education agencies who support young people. New technologies and artificial Intelligenceincreasingly is prevalent in every aspect of life, which includes training and workforce development as well as education.  And as schools worldwide become interconnected, virtual and augmented reality tools will allow students to experience learning in different contexts in ways they could not previously. 

And many of the same e-tools for students are beginning to infiltrate the world of teachers’ professional development — with serious implications for de-siloing classrooms and offering innovative ways for staffing classrooms and collaboration inside and out of the teaching profession. 

With new school designs teachers of various stripes will need much more room to move in and out of different roles, take on more or less responsibility, focus on more or fewer students, and serve in and out of cyberspace, as well as in and out of their school buildings. Ten 

Are administrators ready for this? Policymakers? Teachers themselves? 

I believe STEM teacher leaders can play a major role in this work as the future of work in key fields  - think advanced manufacturing and health sciences - are moving to more variegated work structures and differentiated roles of many different professionals with different prep and skills...

I am working on a paper that i hope to share with this important community of teacher leaders!!