Politics, School Improvement, and Social Justice: A Triadic Model of Teacher Leadership

Abstract

This article describes a comparative framework for identifying, analyzing, and practicing acts of leadership. The triadic framework identifies transactional, transformational, and critical domains of leadership, and argues that teachers, heretofore ignored or neglected in discussions of school management, are pivotal leaders in school reform efforts. Empirical data from the authors' current studies are used to illustrate how teachers engage in acts of leadership, and contemporary literatures on leadership are used to extend these descriptions. This discussion intends to he educative; that is, this article intends to better define the elusive concept of leadership, better understand the dynamic processes involved in decision-making, and better describe who leaders are.

What is leadership and who are leaders? Are teachers leaders or simply subordinates in the educational hierarchy? If possible, what might teacher leadership look like and what purposes would it serve in school reform efforts in a pluralistic society?

Within current school reform and accountability environments, schools exist in very complex political arenas. The push to improve student learning is too large a problem for any single leader to handle alone. In the past, teachers have been expected "to be led" rather than "to lead" school renewal projects (Sirotnik 1989). Schools in the new millennium, however, require teachers to assume an integral role in school reform. In fact, without teachers' participation in formulating and implementing change, most reform efforts have failed (Fullan and Steigelbauer 1991). Teachers need to see themselves as leaders or having the potential and responsibility for leadership. Teachers provide a powerful and insightful voice regarding decisions about school change because teachers have knowledge of local school conditions-knowledge that policy makers and curriculum developers rarely have-to facilitate successful reform attempts (Hargreaves 1996).

Teachers have capacity and power to participate in change efforts that traditionally either hcive been tacitly assumed by them or deliberately defined by others. The Carnegie Report on Education, A Nation Prepared (1986), called for teachers to take more leadership roles in schools. The report argued that for reforms in education to have a significant impact, improvements needed to be rooted in the classroom with teachers. Unfortunately, teachers have not been trusted to participate in school reform activities (Darling-Hammond 1997) or have become targets of policies designed to usurp their classroom power (Corbett 1991). This article develops the idea that a teacher's power is essential both within and beyond the walls of the classroom. This discussion describes a theoretical model of leadership to transcend traditional boundaries of professional identity and replace traditional attempts at school renewal (Burns 1978; Portin 1999; Smyth 1989; Witherspoon 1997).

The Complexity of Teacher Leaders

Portin (1999) initially developed a triadic model of leadership to organize the vast literature on the study of leadership. This conceptualization of leadership is shown in Figure 1.

More importantly, Portin's (1999, 4) triadic model was intended to "push our thinking toward complex understanding of leadership beyond a simple exercise of positional authority." The model examined alternatives to traditional allocations of power through positional hierarchies. Although the model organized and categorized different aspects of leadership, it was not intended to draw absolute boundaries around these distinctions. Rather, the work was intended to illustrate a theoretical model of leadership that captured some of the complexity and interrelations involved with the practice of leadership. The triadic model of leadership approximated the practice of leadership from multiple perspectives that depend on and interact with one another.

While school leaders may recognize their actions within a single frame of the model, the practice of leadership, we argue, is the ability to move in and out of the three different conceptualizations. We believe that adept and skillful leaders use aspects of all three domains according to varied purposes and shifting situations. More importantly, the model "opens up" discussions of who leaders are. We examine how teachers practice leadership by providing evidence that both describes teacher leadership and illustrates the triadic model of leadership.

Transactional Leadership

Burns (1978) coined the term "transactional leadership." This idea of leadership describes social action as leader-centered, dominated by rational models of decisionmaking, and regulated by concerns of efficiency with regard to organizational maintenance. Transactional leaders are sometimes referred to as "benevolent dictators" who direct organizations through heroic and charismatic efforts. Often, though, the organizational culture remains tacit and hidden, controlled by the leader. Transactional leaders attempt to define and frame the reality of others to maintain organizational harmony (Smircich and Morgan 1982). Thus, leaders often seek an exchange, or transaction, from followers to promulgate a particular organizational vision.