Circles of Support for Teacher Leadership Implementing Innovations at School: Point of View of Teachers and School Principals

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the factors that encourage and hinder teachers who lead innovative school initiatives and to identify the circles of support available to them in the process. A qualitative research method was employed. Twenty teachers leading innovative initiatives at school and ten school principals participated in the study. Findings revealed organizational, professional, and social factors that encourage and hinder teachers in leading their initiatives, as well as gaps between teachers' and principals' perceptions of the support they receive. The findings indicate five circles of support available to teachers leading innovative initiatives in addition to their role as teachers: internal school support, external school support and leading without support. These findings have implications for how principals should focus on developing teachers' team-building, conflict resolution, and collaboration skills for supporting teacher leadership. A combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches will help school principals move from hierarchical structures to a shared interactive model while developing teachers' skills for team-building and collaboration.