Is Teacher Content Area Related to Teacher Leader Behavior? Exploring Patterns in Secondary Schools

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between content area and teacher leadership behaviors within secondary schools. Most research regarding teacher leadership has focused on the development of teacher leaders and their impact on school organizations and climate. Additionally, research has sought to determine relationships between personal and professional factors and teacher leadership characteristics. However, research has omitted the relationship of teaching tracts and subject areas and their connection to teacher leader behaviors and characteristics. This study seeks to determine these relationships in order to equip school administrators with knowledge of whom in their school organizations has a stronger capacity to be teacher leaders and are most capable of the work. Further addressing this subject, this study highlights the role that organizational bias and job content specialization play within school organizations as they relate to the identification and development of teacher leaders by building principals. Data from both teachers and administrators seeks to determine to what extent both groups influence the other and how these dynamics impact the organizational systems of a loosely-coupled distributed leadership model. The discussion of data within this study demonstrates that teaching content is a factor as to how teachers display leadership characteristics. Further, data within this study supports the notion that school administrators identify teachers within certain content areas more often. These findings ask for further research into how professional characteristics of teachers and administrators impact teacher leadership and identification at a building level as well as addressing the limitations of this study in hopes of gaining a better understanding of who teacher leaders are and how they are identified and developed by their administrators.