Chapter 9: Concept and Practice of Positive Teacher Leadership

Leadership is a well-established concept that is probably as old as civilization, itself. Anyone could easily point to a number of well-known leaders including politicians, presidents, CEOs, school heads and others in positions of responsibility with high visibility. Over time, our understanding of leadership has been largely shaped by the general belief that a leader’s influence is determined by the number of followers (Offermann et al., 2001). In educational administration, head teachers or principals are usually viewed as de facto leaders; while individual teachers are thought to be responsible for the execution of school goals and objectives geared towards better performance and achieving good results. Less is known about the concept of positive teacher leadership, though the concept is not completely new. The concept first emerged in Cherkowski’s (2018) article on teacher leadership conceptualized from a positive perspective—grounded in organizational scholarship and positive psychological theories. This author’s conceptualization of positive teacher leadership encouraged an alternate view on the potentials for school improvement and wellbeing for self and others. The article highlighted that there is limited literature on teacher leadership with a focus on appreciative, strength-based and positive perspectives (Cherkowski, 2018). Approaching leadership from a positive perspective is challenging because studies on leadership have long focused on what is wrong or, in other words, a problemsolving approach. The literature has been dominated by arguments in favor of a position that leads to actions intended to “fix or resolve” that which is wrong in the workplace or that points to the deficits characterizing employees (Cameron, 2012).