Abstract:

Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina NBCT, says that Katzenmeyer and Moller have provided a significant read for administrators and policy-makers that also gives teachers clear ways to become leaders. Katzenmeyer and Moller stress that teacher leadership is essential to school reform.

Citation: Katzenmeyer, M. & Moller, G. (2001). Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop as leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Full Text:

By Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller
2001 (196 pp./paperback)
Corwin Press
ISBN: 0-7619-7830-5
$32.95

Reviewed by Bill Ferriter
Dillard Drive Middle School
Raleigh, North Carolina

Recent educational dialogue has focused on the importance and benefits of tapping into teacher leadership as a vehicle for school reform. Many writers are asserting that schools cannot make significant changes until the knowledge of our most accomplished teachers is accessed. Awakening the Sleeping Giant examines the requirements for developing teacher leaders, the responsibilities of those who wish to lead, and rewards for education when teachers are looked to for leadership

The accountability climate created with the passage of No Child Left Behind and the high-stakes testing movement has created an interesting paradox in education. While teachers hold the greatest potential in meeting the demanding goals set forth by this legislation, educational decision-making has been pulled out of their hands. Katzenmeyer and Moller note that, "The pressures of accountability and 'high-stakes' testing cause some principals and district staff to revert to top-down approaches with teachers, showing a lack of respect for reliance on teachers' professional judgment in matters of curriculum and instruction."

This barrier poses the greatest threat to the development of teacher leadership in our schools. A sense of trust has to be returned between teachers and decision-makers. "The school principal's responsibility is to build the school as a workplace in which teachers have the autonomy to make decisions about their work," says Katzenmeyer and Moller.

The limited opportunities and time provided for teachers to engage in professional growth is also harming our students and our schools. As stated in Awakening, "Teachers need time to learn complex knowledge and skills they may never have experienced as a student. The National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1994) cited a study in which teachers were found to need at least 50 hours of instruction, practice and follow-up technical assistance" before being comfortable with new teaching strategies."

Finally, effective incentives have to be provided to encourage teachers to accept leadership roles. Current conditions do not favor the development of teachers in many ways. As the authors of Awakening so clearly state, "Teachers who have to work second jobs to support their families do not have the energy necessary for leadership and improving their practice."

While Katzenmeyer and Moller hold educational decision-makers accountable for encouraging and developing conditions that allow teachers to accept leadership roles, they also outline many responsibilities of teachers who wish to take on these new roles.

First, teacher leaders have to be interested in, and willing to, influence those who work around them. Teachers are inherently influential people who persuade students throughout an entire year. Teacher leaders must demonstrate the same ability to persuade colleagues to work towards meaningful school-wide goals. "Motivating colleagues toward improved practice relies on the personal influence of a competent teacher who has positive relationships with other adults in the school."

Also, a teacher leader must be ready to accept accountability for leadership outcomes. This willingness to accept accountability for educational decision-making serves to take pressure off of administrators (who often feel overwhelmed by the pressure of every decision in a school house.) "A parallel responsibility with shared leadership is shared accountability," the authors state. "Simply opening leadership roles for teachers may not make the difference in improving student performance. Only when teachers have both the chance to be involved and the accountability for progress will teacher-led change be meaningful."

Finally, a teacher leader must be able to understand colleagues. Being able to recognize the position that one's coworkers are operating from gives a teacher leader more influence over the actions of others. Being tolerant of differences and willing to engage those who are ready is the key to developing working relationships that have true synergy and meaning. Teacher leaders must, "seek to understand all viewpoints. Valuing individuals for the diversity they bring to the situation can be essential to the success of teacher leaders."

In the end, Katzenmeyer and Moller contend that developing teachers as leaders holds many rewards for public schooling. One significant reward is that increased leadership opportunities will lead to increased efficacy on the part of the teachers within a building. This renewed sense of purpose and commitment will help with the effort to retain quality teachers.

The importance of keeping quality teachers in the classroom cannot be minimized, assert Katzenmeyer and Moller. "There is evidence that ineffective teachers not only deny quality education to their students the year the students are in their classes, but also have residual effects that can last for years." Providing opportunities for committed and accomplished teachers to lead may be part of the motivation to keep them in the classroom.

Teacher leadership also increases the likelihood that reform efforts will actually succeed. "Recognizing that teachers are the closest to the clients, reformers acknowledge that unless teachers are involved in the decision making around the innovation, there is little chance that the reform effort will succeed," state Katzenmeyer and Moller. When the teacher voice is ignored, educators tend to exert "the power of the door knob," refusing to implement changes in practice within their personal sphere of influence...the classroom.

In Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders, Katzenmeyer and Moller have outlined a plan for reforming our schools. They make the case for involving teachers in leadership roles, combating the "blue collar" view that many educational decision makers hold of educators.

This title is a significant read for administrators and system level educational leaders who are interested in bringing real change to their schools by proposing a true sense of "shared decision making" that is so often missing from the American classroom. There is no end to the potential held by a teacher empowered!

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