DEVELOPING A TEACHER LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK IN PREPARING QUALITY TEACHERS FOR THE FUTURE

The purpose of this study is to develop a teacher leadership framework in preparing quality teachers for the future. To this end, the study has outlined six provisional guiding principles (PGPs) that could assist in developing students into becoming quality teachers upon completion of their respective teacher training programmes. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods through the analysis of documents, interviews, observations and validation. The data for this study have been gathered over a period of almost five years. The findings provide an analysis of best practices in teacher preparation from four countries. The PGPs have been developed based on three important elements of teacher leadership which are values, skills and knowledge. The development of the framework also takes into consideration teachers’ personal, professional, and contextual aspects. The teacher leadership PGPs developed are leading in teaching and learning, leading through modelling, leading through organizational development, leading through collaborative culture, leading through partnership with community, and leading through exemplary contributions. A discussion on the implementation progress is provided. This study posits that in order to prepare teacher leaders student teachers are required to have strong foundation in leadership skills, teacher professionalism and teaching philosophy.