The 4-Rs of teacher
leadership during
school transition
Building a strong adult
culture and climate
includes intentionally
engaging with teacher-
leaders on a shared
leadership model
that fosters strong
communication, clear
understanding of roles
and responsibilities,
and decreases teacher
burnout over time.
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Leadership
Let’s face it, schools are always in
some sort of transition. Sometimes it’s due
to expansion, full scale redesign, or even
reimagining roles and responsibilities due to
teacher or administrative turnover. What’s
important to note is that the one constant
pillar through all types of school transition
is the necessity of teacher-leadership.
When referring to teacher-leaders I in-
clude all teachers at a site. Many teachers
may not be engaged in a formal leadership
role, such as grade level lead, instructional
coach, department chair, restorative justice
coordinator, athletic director. However,
they are still teacher-leaders because teach-
ers do more than “just teach.”
The purpose of this article is to remind
site leaders how to lean on, and intentionally
engage with, their teacher-leaders as equal
partners as they seek to lead their schools
through transition.
The 4-Rs of teacher-leadership through
school transition – ref lection, resilience,
relational trust and revisioning sustain-
able systems and structures – is a practi-
cal guide for how to meaningfully include
teacher-leaders in decision making, increase
their capacity to lead their colleagues, and
actively participate in the shared vision be-
hind how schools will ride the ebb and flow
of school transition.
Due to the unique context of each school,
a one-time-fix does not exist. However, ad-
ministrators can use the 4-Rs as building
blocks to help them most effectivity utilize
teacher leaders at their site.
Reflection
Current administrators in California were
probably teacher-leaders at some point while
they were classroom teachers. I want you to
think about your role as a teacher-leader, be-
By Whitneé L. Garrett-Walker