School Leadership in the Caribbean by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Symposium Books
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Teachers as Leaders: building the middle leadership base in Jamaican schools

DIAN McCALLUM

Introduction

This chapter examines the issue of teacher leadership in the Jamaican context. It does so against the background of how the question of teachers as leaders is discussed and takes place in practice in other countries. Opportunities for teacher leadership abound generally, given the many curriculum and other school-related matters for which teachers, by virtue of their own professionalism, can assume some leadership. Within the Jamaican context in particular, notably at the secondary level, teachers without seniority are assigned leadership roles, usually of a pastoral nature, which they perform with respect to a specific grade to which they are assigned as form teachers. Seniority refers to a position of responsibility which is assigned to a teacher. There are three levels of seniority, and heads of department, for example, occupy the third level. Seniority can be due to length of service, but may also be due to ability and/ or leadership qualities.

As well as being subject experts who are responsible for the delivery of an aspect of the school’s curriculum, subject teachers, many of whom might be form teachers, constitute the largest group of employees in the school and, as such, are represented at the base of the schools’ organisational structure. It is understandable that the opportunities for formal teacher leadership would be limited for members of this large group in view of the typical structure of schools in Jamaica, which is largely horizontal in nature. This is because the apex and middle section of the school structure is occupied by comparatively fewer members of a school’s personnel. These include the principal, vice-principals, guidance counsellor, heads of departments, deans of discipline, year group coordinators, and more recently, master teachers, to name some of the most common positions.

The middle leadership base is occupied in the present structure by heads of departments who are assigned to leadership positions and have responsibility for the management of teachers and curriculum matters in their departments. Other leadership positions are assigned to teachers who supervise form teachers who are themselves assigned in pastoral roles to students in a single class belonging to a specific year group or grade. Subject departments vary in size, with the language arts and mathematics departments generally commanding the largest number of teachers within the secondary system in Jamaica. Teachers can remain in departments with very little prospect of promotion, except by virtue of seniority, at which time they are assigned to a position of responsibility. In a general sense, positions of formal leadership, such as that of heads of department, are not rotated or subject to a set period of time. Incumbents usually retain such positions until they resign from their teaching position, retire, or are promoted to another position of responsibility further up within the system. Given this reality, how can more opportunities for the widening of the middle leadership base be provided for teachers who are not heads of departments or master teachers for instance, but who can

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.