SCIENCE TEACHER LEADERSHIP: The Current Landscape and Paths Forward

Teacher leadership has become an increasingly popular topic discussed as a means to improve education. Enhancing teacher professional learning opportunities by cultivating teacher leaders (TLs) is one strategy that can be adopted to improve education. TLs contribute to instructional leadership, reform efforts, and the practices of their profession. In addition, TLs support improving teacher quality and sustainable school improvement efforts. The development of science teacher leadership is a critical aspect in improving science education, and attention to this research area has increased over the last few decades. This chapter will review the research on science teacher leadership and provide a current overview of the field. We will include who is a science teacher leader (STL), how STLs are developed professionally, and the impact of STLs in schools and school systems. We will also suggest implications for science teacher professional development (in-service), policy makers, and those teachers who want to become STLs.