Turning Good Teachers into Great Leaders

Everyone agrees that leadership in a school contributes greatly to producing high student outcomes. School leadership can come from the administration, teaching staff or both. While much is known about administrative leadership and how to develop it, less is known about teacher leadership. Few school authorities attempt to systemically identify and nurture teacher leaders.

What is teacher leadership? How do accomplished teachers view themselves as leaders? How can teacher leaders be used to improve schools and the teaching profession? What kind of training and support do teacher leaders need? What can schools and authorities do to stimulate the development of teacher leaders? Results from a survey of accomplished teachers conducted by the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University will be shared. Implications for Scottish schools will be discussed.

 Terry Dozier, Special Adviser on Teaching to the US, Secretary of Education during the Clinton Administration.

Dr. Terry Dozier is the Director of the Centre for Teacher Leadership (CTL) at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education where she also serves as National Teacher in Residence and Associate Professor in the School of Education.  The Centre for Teacher Leadership works with accomplished teachers throughout Virginia and the United States to:

• promote the concept of teachers as leaders of change;
• develop more effective teacher leaders through access to information and high-quality training; and
• share the knowledge, experience, and insight of teachers with policymakers and others.

Dozier also chairs the Metropolitan Educational Training Alliance (META), a partnership among Chesterfield County Public Schools, Hanover County Public Schools, Henrico County Public Schools, Richmond City Public Schools, and VCU.  She serves as principal investigator for the META Teacher Development and Retention Project, a $5.9 million federally funded effort to improve the preparation and retention of teachers in the metro-Richmond area.

Prior to joining VCU, Dozier served as Senior Advisor on Teaching to former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.  In this capacity she served as the Clinton Administration’s top policy advisor on all teaching issues.  Dozier also led the Department’s teaching initiative with primary responsibility for the development and implementation of a strategic plan to improve teacher recruitment, preparation, and ongoing professional development, including overall leadership in research, evaluation, and data collection on teacher quality.

While teaching world history at Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina, Dozier was named the 1985 United States Teacher of the Year and has nineteen years of classroom teaching experience in settings as diverse as inner-city Miami, suburban South Carolina, and the Singapore American School. Dozier earned an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Carolina and an M.Ed. and a B.A. in social studies education from the University of Florida.