Growing Leaders Within

Book excerpt: Growing Leaders Within: A Process toward Teacher Leadership will aid school administrators in the task of growing and empowering teacher leaders. The goal of growing teacher leaders is to grow a school culture of shared decision-making and collaborative leadership. It is through this transformation that teacher leaders help school administrators to create a laser focus on student success. The underpinnings of the book are based on academic research resulting in a seven-step process to growing teacher leaders, which is distinctive from other books about teacher leadership. Schools may have several teacher leader candidates, but it is the responsibility of the school administration to ensure that the right individuals are chosen to become part of the school’s leadership team. The role of teacher leadership can be diminished if the wrong individuals are selected. In response to this, the book offers school administrators a research-based, pragmatic growth process that ensures the right teachers are chosen to enter the leadership ranks at any school. Growing and empowering teachers to be leaders is now critical in all schools.