Teacher Leadership in Context: Its Relationship with Social, Material, and Human Resources in Schools Implementing Reform

This exploratory study presents an examination of the relationships between and among teacher leadership and social, material, and human resources. This study answers the following research questions: How does active teacher leadership influence a school's human resources, in terms of reported changes in teaching practice? What is the relationship between a school's social and material resources and its implementation of teacher leadership? Findings indicate that teacher leaders engage in two types of functions - support and developmental. Which functions teacher leaders are able to engage in is determined by their access to contextual social and material resources; these resources include support from administrators, relationships with colleagues, time to enact the teacher leader role, and involvement in professional development. This study establishes that teacher leadership positively influences a school's human resources when these contextual factors allow for teacher leaders to engage in developmental functions. Therefore, social and material resources impact whether or not teacher leaders can improve teaching practice.