Teachers’ abstracted conceptualizations of their way in experiencing the leadership in the classroom: Transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge

Abstract

Despite the abundance of decades of research into teacher leadership, uncertainty remains due to confusion around the notions of teacher leadership and the unity or at least the authenticity of definitions, and there is a need for a deeper understanding of this leadership process as the teacher works with students in the classroom. The existing definitions and descriptions of teacher leadership do not determine the connection between teacher leadership and student learning, and the subject remains empirically unsubstantiated. The aim of this study was to develop a set of categories of description derived from the teachers’ conceptions of their leadership in the classroom through learning interactions with students. The study was based on the phenomenographic research methodology. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with 37 teachers. A phenomenographic analysis sought a description, analysis, and understanding of experiences with the focus on variation in the conceptions of the phenomenon, as experienced by teachers. Findings revealed that teachers discern their leadership through working with students at school in three stages represented by three categories of description—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge. All these stages are linked by teacher-student interaction which facilitates successful and meaningful learning for students within the classroom. The connections between the three stages demonstrate the need for teacher–student collaboration, teaching personalization, the professional expertise of the teacher, and learning cocreation. The findings of this study contribute to the expansion of the concept of teacher leadership not only as expert influence through the application of specific teaching methods, but as a coherent process from knowledge transfer to its creation through reciprocal teacher–student learning in the classroom.