Chapter 13: Rediscovering Transformative Leadership in Teacher Education: Building Teacher Leaders Through a Transformative Partnership, Reflection, and Inquiry

In this chapter, we describe the ways we use transformative pedagogies to develop teacher leaders. Transformational teaching links learning theories together with dispositional attitudes, beliefs, and values (Slavich & Zimbardo, 2012). Mezirow (2000) asserts that there are ten phases of transformation, beginning with a disorienting dilemma. We posit that for teacher candidates, this disorientation occurs as they move from the role of student to classroom teacher and begin to connect theory to practice. Transformation occurs as teacher candidates engage in (a) exploration of options for new roles, relations, and actions, (b) provisional trying of new roles, (c) planning a course of action, (d) an acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans, and (e) building of competence and self confidence in new roles and relationships. (Kumi-Yeboah & James 2012; Mezirow, 2000; Taylor, 1998). Transformation occurs not only for teacher candidates, but also for mentor teachers, and college faculty. In this chapter, we focus solely on the teacher candidates’ development as they engage in various transformative pedagogies. Through these pedagogies that occur in phases, in two semesters of undergraduate work, teacher candidates engage in guided reflection and inquiry to process their new learning and develop strategies to become transformational teachers. In order to develop as transformational teacher leaders, teacher candidates must develop the habits of mind, or ways of thinking (Hodkinson & Hodkinson, 2004; Meijer, Oolbekkink, Meirink, & Lockhorst, 2010, 2013), of reflection and inquiry. The most effective teachers are reflective practitioners, who actively, consistently, and carefully consider their practices and beliefs (Sydnor, 2016). Teacher preparation programs increasingly focus on guiding teacher candidates to become reflective practitioners who analyze their teaching and development of action steps for continued growth (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Inquiry is a habit of mind (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2019), developed over time so teachers establish themselves as voices of knowledge about classroom practice and reform. Together, reflection and inquiry create a synergy that guides teachers to transformative pedagogies and leadership.