Year: 2022 | Month: August | Volume 13 | Issue 2

School Leaders for Teachers: A Case on the Emerging Trends in Teacher Leadership in Kerala

Shivani Bakshi
DOI:10.30954/2230-7311.2.2022.9

Abstract:

School education stands at a crossroads with growing uncertainties and ambiguity in the wake of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The government’s mandate for the schools to go digital in their functioning is back into focus. From managing time-table to ensuring learner outcomes, teachers’ responsibility has increased considerably. Besides, the onus of school improvement has escalated the responsibilities of the principals considerably’. In such a scenario, there emerges a need to form a leadership continuum in schools that expands across the hierarchy and decentralizes power, especially to the teachers. Teacher leadership is a recent phenomenon in India, unlike its western counterparts, where the focus on the teachers’ role in leadership positions has already gained impetus. Clearly defined as a ’set of practices that enhance the teaching profession, it is a holistic concept that offers a means to improve schools overall’ (Killion et al. 2016). Besides guaranteeing school reforms, it also ensures durable professional identities (Fullan, 2006). ‘However, even where principals and schools support teacher leadership in classrooms and schools, this does not guarantee teachers to take full advantage of those opportunities to lead’(Berry et al. 2010a). In such a scenario, it becomes crucial for the principals to usher new and fresh teacher leadership prospects in schools ‘to embrace, encourage, and support innovation and creativity from their teachers’. The present paper contributes to the bleak literature on teacher leadership in India with a case study of a C.B.S.E. school in Trivandrum, Kerala. In India, rare studies attempt to conceptualise teacher leadership in a contextual understanding. Since education comes under the Concurrent List, both the Centre and States have a significant share in shaping education systems in the respective states. Hence, despite having a standard school system, culture and diversity shape the systems differently to cater to the diverse student needs and vast student strength. In such a scenario, teacher leadership can assure a potential solution to the issues related to the management and administration. The case study enlightens on the trajectory of teacher leadership observed by the school leader to achieve the maximum potential from a clientele of approximately 5000 students with the help of strong and confident teachers. It also assists the school in promoting positive culture, healthy competition, and overall improvement and concludes with the study’s implications.

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