Catalyzing the Courage to Lead A Two-Pronged Approach to Empower Mathematics Teachers as Leaders

Abstract

All students deserve access to high-quality, effective, and impactful mathematics learning experiences. Yet, embodying a collective commitment to high-quality mathematics instruction necessitates a brave willingness of some members to orchestrate the process and provide a vision, working to get everyone on board, shifting away from teaching as a highly individualized activity, and shifting towards teaching as a shared responsibility. In this paper, we broadly ask, how might we facilitate the advancement of K-8 mathematics teachers as leaders? This study, which is part of a larger 5-year project, is focused on analyzing the development of a community of K-8 mathematics teacher leaders, later mentioned as Fellows, involved in an intentional partnership between a large metropolitan research university, one of the largest school districts in the U.S., and an education-focused non-profit. After describing our project’s unique two-pronged approach, we share our longitudinal mixed methods approach and broad results from our first two years, which indicated a trend of consistent growth in Fellows’ knowledge as well as their ability as leaders to initiate and sustain improvements in mathematics education. We conclude by engaging in a transparent discussion around implications for practice (importance of two-pronged approach, idea that feeling valued matters, and intentionality in developing partnerships), implications for research (importance of multi-year district-wide programs for impactful change, the value of longitudinal mixed methods data collection, initial mindsets matter, and the need for further research on classroom teachers as mathematics leaders), and project next steps.