Windows into Instructional Practice

When educators move into administrative roles, they can quickly lose sight of what it's like to be in the classroom. They rarely have the chance to deepen their understanding of current practices. Over time, they become further removed from the work of instruction. Meanwhile, exceptional classroom teachers are becoming experts in the latest teaching practices, but they often lack the skills or opportunities to lead capacity-building efforts in their schools. These opposing trajectories create a wall that has traditionally divided teaching and leading—with administrators and teachers unable to fully view one another's practices.

We can begin to dismantle this wall by creating a new element of school leadership—one that we call teachership. Teachership weaves exceptional leading with exceptional teaching. It emerges when administrators engage in classroom-based professional learning and exemplary teachers lead from within the classroom. By working together to tackle the unique challenges of teaching and leading, administrators and teachers can develop a deep level of understanding for other roles. The end result is administrators and teachers who work with rather than against one another to improve school culture, teaching practices, and student learning.

In the Sandbox