Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
V. Uluslararası Bilim, Eğitim, Sanat ve Teknoloji Sempozyumu, İzmir, Türkiye, 9 - 11 Ekim 2025, ss.1-2, (Özet Bildiri)
Preparing preservice teachers as teacher leaders
The relevant literature defines leadership as the
ability to inspire, influence, and guide individuals within an organization
toward achieving organizational goals. It is a concept that includes various
qualities such as vision creation, decision-making, effective communication,
and understanding individuals, going far beyond simply assuming management
authority. Administrators with effective leadership qualities encourage
effective communication and cooperation among individuals, adapt to change, and
act in accordance with the principle of accountability. Leadership plays a
critical role in organizational and individual development across various
sectors, as well as in achieving goals and ensuring progress. Organizations
provide leadership training to administrative candidates and current administrators
to encourage them to become effective leaders, thereby ensuring that this
critical role is fulfilled in the most effective manner possible.
In educational settings, teachers take on
administrative responsibilities in addition to their teaching responsibilities.
They are required to take on positions as principals, assistant principals, and
class leaders. While imparting their
academic knowledge to their students during a class period, they are also busy leading
that class and/or implementing educational reforms required by the Ministry of
Education. For these reasons, teachers are expected to be leaders who develop
innovative methods based on a collaborative approach, initiate change, and
sustain it, going beyond traditional teaching roles.
The leadership behaviors exhibited by teachers
without any managerial role are explained by the concept of “teacher leadership”.
Previous literature suggests that teacher leadership improves school culture,
benefits teachers’ professional development, improves student achievement, and supports
the greater learning community. There are various international practices used
to develop preservice teachers as teacher leaders. For instance, at Murray
State University in the US, a teacher leadership training program indicating
three dimensions which are multiple perspective taking, enhancing ethical
reasoning and analyzing real-life teacher leadership cases is provided to preservice
students in the Psychology of Human Development program. The Pennsylvania State University provides
yearlong clinical internships in a professional development school in which
teacher educators establish teacher leadership development as a formalized
expectation for all preservice teachers. In Qatar, a 12-week practicum experience
including teacher leadership training is implemented for preservice teachers at
the College of Education.
However, there is a dearth of research in
Türkiye related to developing preservice teachers’ leadership knowledge,
skills, and identities, which is an important initial step for teacher
leadership. In this study, we aim to fill in this gap by reviewing
international practices of teacher leadership in initial teacher preparation
programs and draw implications for preservice teacher education in Türkiye. This
research will identify effective strategies for fostering teacher leadership
and provide recommendations for integrating these practices into preservice
teacher education programs. Ultimately, this study seeks to contribute to the
advancement of teacher leadership in Türkiye and enhance the preparation of
future educators as transformative leaders in their classrooms.
Keywords: Teacher leadership, preservice teachers,
international practices