The Power of Invitation: Teacher Leaders as Agents of Change

Abstract

Programs offered by universities and other entities outside the organizational bound- secondary process can provide aries of schools are an important source of ideas and support for educational improve- teachers with supports related to ment. Such organizations can focus on important needs—such as improving teaching of science education, foreign language science—that schools perhaps cannot address on their own due to resource constraints. instruction, arts education, and In such cases, teacher leaders can play key roles in bringing the knowledge and insights other knowledge and competencies. from external organizations into schools, sharing them with colleagues, and gaining One notable characteristic of administrative support. This kind of teacher leadership, responding to external initia- this second approach is that the outside organizations tend to focus tives rather than just to administrative priorities, is understudied, but programs in Maine initially on work with teachers and that connect schools to universities and nonprofit organizations provide insight into the bring administrators in as the project nature of such teacher leadership. We draw upon cases from two of these programs develops, rather than working first to offer suggestions to other organizations that might wish to develop programs for through district administrators, then teacher leaders in support of educational improvement. to building administrators, and finally