Leverage Teacher Expertise
In today's education landscape, teachers face significant challenges in assuming leadership roles due to autonomy and agency constraints. Hierarchical structures limit decision-making to administrative roles, sidelining teachers from shaping educational practices. Resistance to change hinders the transition towards teacher leadership cultures, while a lack of targeted professional development leaves teachers ill-prepared for leadership roles. The demanding workload further restricts their ability to take on additional responsibilities. Additionally, teacher contributions may be undervalued, leading to demotivation. Cultural norms favoring top-down decision-making and inadequate resource allocation also pose obstacles.
Addressing these challenges requires fostering a supportive culture, providing tailored professional development, and redefining leadership structures. Acknowledging and rewarding teacher contributions is crucial. By empowering teachers with greater autonomy and agency, schools can leverage their expertise to drive meaningful change and enhance student outcomes.
— Derek Voiles, assistant principal, Lincoln Heights Middle School, Morristown, Tennessee
Navigate Hurdles Together
Teachers often face a complex balancing act between their professional expertise and external pressures. Three specific challenges teachers face are federal and state mandate overload, lack of resources available to support behavioral and mental health of children, and systematic time constraints that suffocate collaboration, resulting in unintended silos that restrict pedagogical creativity. These hurdles disrupt the coherence of learning for children and have the ability to influence the culture of the educational community in a negative direction. As leaders, it is important we advocate for solutions to these challenges and continue to support all staff in the effort to maximize our capacity as a learning community. Bridging community relationships, breaking down the walls of an industrialized school structure, and locally minimizing compliance requirements are just three strategies to help our teachers reach full autonomy that results in vibrant learning communities and opportunities for our children.
— Joshua Zagorski, superintendent/principal, Riverton School District, Riverton, New Jersey
Create Room for Decision-Making
In today's education landscape, there appears to be more of an emphasis on teacher accountability and less of a reliance on the expertise and experience of teachers. Unfortunately, this mindset has pushed teacher autonomy and agency to the background. Over my years of teaching, I have seen the opportunities for teacher decision-making dwindling each year. Unfortunately, this takes away instructional independence and removes a feeling that we as teachers are making a positive difference. Perhaps this lack of being a part of decision-making in schools is one of the main causes for teachers to leave the field at the rapid rates that we are seeing. After all, as we know, autonomy and agency are able to allow teachers to share their creativity, be more engaged in their profession, and be motivated to continue teaching. With agency and autonomy out of the picture, how can teachers thrive in the educational environments that they have worked so hard to create?
— Kasey Uppling, kindergarten teacher, Warrior Run Elementary, Turbotville, Pennsylvania
Invest in Equitable PD
One way to increase teacher investment in education as a career is to invest in teachers through high quality, actionable professional learning opportunities that are differentiated and based on teacher needs. The investment must be equitable, meaning that teachers have access to high quality professional learning that is not tied to cost. The old model of cost dependent, curriculum dependent literacy education has caused not just gaps but fissures in education. The fissures begin with access for teachers and by default trickle down to the most vulnerable populations and communities. Equity and repair begins with access to high quality actionable professional learning that is differentiated and requires collaborative effort to implement. We lift the value of our profession and provide a place for teacher voices by equipping them with knowledge that transfers to practice with the collective goal of improving literacy outcomes for all students.
— Ramona Brown, K-3 field implementation coordinator, Atlanta Speech School, Atlanta, Georgia
Remember the Role of Joy
I wonder about the unintended consequences of our efforts to support students and teachers during this post-pandemic period of time in education. In our haste to address absenteeism and learning loss, have we implemented solutions, like Virginia's ALL IN initiative, that paradoxically undermine the very people we are trying to help? Do these programs replace creativity and autonomy of teachers and students, with rigid schedules and prescriptive measures? Could they inadvertantly contribute to further teacher attrition by treating professional educators as interchangable facilitators rather than experts? Might our students benefit more from patient, more autonomous, and more personalized learning experiences than from blanket policies?
In our desire to recover from the pandemic toll, perhaps we have prioritized prescription over humanity, rigidity over innovation. Perhaps, we have sacrificed the joy of teaching and learning. Moving forward, we must craft policies and practices that enrich rather than diminish motivation and engagement, and honor what it means to be a life-long learner.
— Abigail French, CTE pathways coach, Frederick County Public Schools, Winchester, Virginia
Don’t Lose Sight of Students’ Needs
In education today, we have so many new curriculums that are scripted, meaning they are literally telling teachers what to say and when to say it. What some of these curriculums don’t account for are student questions, misconceptions, or grouping strategies to maximize collaboration or understanding. Creativity and autonomy have been minimized due to teachers either not knowing when and how to insert creativity into the lessons or due to curriculum fatigue. Teachers today walk a fine line between implementation with fidelity and when to input collaborative structures or activities based on student learning styles that increase student engagement and understanding of the standard.
— Amanda E. Austin, principal, MSA East Academy (Iberville Parish), St. Gabriel, Louisiana
Use Tech to Boost Agency
Using technology in the classroom opens doors for educators' autonomy and agency. The challenge? Fears and a lack of understanding of edtech best. At a leadership level, a lack of understanding of the power of educational technology often results in a lack of training for educators, thereby reducing their agency. As technology rapidly changes, a lack of guidance from districts can result in educators either feeling overwhelmed and unable to use tools, or using technology in ineffective ways.
The goal is to build alignment among stakeholders by increasing understanding about effective technology integration, learning what our educators want and need, and communicating across departments to ensure ethical and intentional use of tools. The more we can learn from one another, the more we can empower our educators and increase their autonomy and agency in the ever-changing educational landscape.
— Lindsey McCaleb, AzTEA board president, AzTEA, Arizona
