A Brizuela Cosía Aportaciones al diseño de calzado para baloncesto

Although the EFL teachers interviewed recognized that in Saudi Arabia roles of teacher leaders are almost exclusively manifested as those practised inside their classrooms with their students, four out of nine participants envisaged other roles beyond their classroom setting. These are listed in Table 8 below under the sub- themes of mediator and administrative liaison, mentor, extracurricular activities player and community builder.

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Table 8: Teacher Leadership Roles outside the Classroom

Teachers recognised that leadership roles outside the classroom such as “mediator and administrative liaison” can be significant and relevant for the students inside the classroom, as well as for other teachers. This role could help the school community where the teacher acts as a liaison between their colleagues and the headteacher, and between teachers themselves, to facilitate interaction and communication among them. Khalid (FG) mentions a role teachers have in discussing broader issues beyond the subject discipline, whereas Ali in his

Sub-theme Data Evidence No. of

Responses

Mediator and administrative

liaison

“He must be active in the school, not just in his period of his class around his class, in

broadcasting, encouraging colleagues and

students, try to interact to the students was just in their books with some subject around the

environment studies.” (Khalid, FG)

5

Mentor “Teachers are now serving as research

colleagues, working as advisor-mentors to new teachers, and facilitating professional

development activities as master teachers.”

(Kamal, RE).

"The colleagues see me what I am doing to my student and maybe he will benefit from my experience. Then may be new teacher will see other teacher do that things and so address about his student and then the new teacher may be influenced from all teachers who have

experience." (Nasser, Int.)

4

Extracurricular activities player

"The leader teacher plays an active role to engage and manage the educational activities outside classrooms, and on the individual and group levels.” (Tariq, Int)

"Any person, any wants to be leader, the best, always I want to work for my society" (Ali, FG).

4

Community Builder

“Teacher’s society, if he can build his society... as a builder of his society with his colleagues, the management, if he can deal with the

management... this is part of teacher leadership.” (Ali, FG)

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interview raised the following: “The teacher leader must be a teacher himself and

adviser, a provider for help in the school community and outside the school.”

The data therefore draw attention to the need for teachers as professionals to lead by example in teamwork, collegiality and effective communication beyond their subject discipline, for the smooth running of the school and its network. For example, participants also viewed teacher leadership outside the classroom to include helping their colleagues by sharing their professional knowledge and best pedagogical and professional practices. Teacher leadership is identified as important between colleagues, both in terms of sharing their experience and developing best practices, and also in terms of mentoring newer, less experienced teachers. For example, Kamal stressed the help that teachers could offer each other as “advisor-mentors” and “master teachers”, while Nasser in his interview envisaged a model of veteran teachers sharing their experience with new teachers, who can in turn develop their practice and inform their colleagues. Ideally a “new teacher may be influenced from all teachers who have experience.” Ziad in his interview also supported mentoring and added that teacher leadership positions can extend to taking roles outside the classroom, to be a critical part in building the professional capacity of their colleagues and sharing best practice outside the classroom.

As well as seeing the potential for teaching professionals to mutually support each other’s work and development through leadership, several participants saw the teacher leader’s involvement in the school generally as vital. An important form of teacher leadership engagement which emerged from the findings (mentioned by four participants) is that of playing a role in “extracurricular activities” as well as teaching: those activities that enhance the learning experience alongside other

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cultural, social, educational and physical activities, as argued by Tariq in his interview. This role can be utilized to designate informal roles for teachers to maximize their professional engagement in different school activities and reforms. Teachers are naturally keen to maximize their activities and standing, and Ali in his focus group reflected this in his professional commitment to lead and excel, saying he wanted to “work for his [my] society”.

Similarly to being involved in day-to-day activities, but perhaps with a longer-term focus, six teachers reported that they would like to be ‘community builders’. This would involve being part of the decision-making processes, where teacher leaders also operate with members of school-based leadership teams, instructional support teams and leaders of change. This response suggests that if administrative tasks are delegated to them by the headteachers, teachers also wish to participate in school improvement processes. Such roles are clear in the quotation above from Ali in his interview, who feels that there would be capacity for teacher leaders to work within a school society and with policy makers. Nasser reaffirmed this in his reflective essay, describing leadership roles as being exercised within the school community. The leader teacher is the one who manages and controls educational activities within the school and the surrounding environment, he is a “builder of his society”.

The implications and possibilities of such roles as evidenced by examples of their perceptions and reported experiences in section 5.1.2 are discussed in Chapter 7. Meanwhile in the following section, findings are presented that consider to what extent teachers consider themselves to be capable of enacting them through their teacher leadership, or how they do exhibit teacher leadership in the professional practice, irrespective of the availability of the roles discussed above. These

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responses will also serve to illustrate further the definitions of teacher leadership given by participants, discussed in section 5.1, and how teachers relate themselves to this conception.