The Role of Teamwork in the Development of Teacher Leadership

Abstract

The dearth of studies about teacher leadership in Spanish-speaking contexts is noticeable. This research, which is part of the International Study of Teacher Leadership (ISTL), sought to fill this gap and focused specifically on conceptualizations of teamwork, an essential feature of teacher leadership. Document analysis was conducted using key policy documents from Colombia, Mexico, and Spain to determine convergences and divergences between the conceptualizations, and to establish their connections with teacher leadership as theorized in distributed leadership. The findings stress the need to promote the recognition of teachers’ intellectual capital and their role in the generation of initiatives and innovations in the three contexts examined. They also stress that teamwork requires attending to organizational aspects to guarantee quality time and adequate spaces to foster team dialogue. In addition, both teachers and principals need preparation for teamwork and collaboration, particularly in connection to refining their socioemotional and communicative skills so that meaningful dialogical exchanges can be enhanced. Finally, the study suggests that there is a need to analyze the contents of new proposals for legislation to determine changing perspectives of teacher leadership as a response to the complex social problems faced in the three countries.