It’s Good to Share: Teacher Leadership Summit 2019

June 14th 2019 saw the fourth National Sharing the Learning Summit of the Teacher Leadership Programme. Held in Glasgow’s Radisson Blu, the Summit was the final stage of the programme when participants came together to celebrate and share their learning.

The Teacher Leadership Programme (TLP) is a supportive and developmental professional learning opportunity for all post-probationary teacher across Scotland. The TLP is delivered regionally, face-to-face and online and supports participants through a cycle of enquiry over an academic session. The  programme focuses on the transformative impact enquiry can have on the participants themselves and the learning communities they work in.

The TLP is designed around five main phases to support participant engagement in enquiry and exploration of teacher leadership.

1. Exploring     

• What do we mean by ‘teacher leadership’ and why is it important?

2. Reflecting    

• What am I currently doing and why?

3. Enquiring     

• What is an enquiring approach?
• How could I develop my practice through enquiring?                    
• How do I carry out an enquiry?

4. Reflecting    

• How has this impacted on my classroom?                       
• What have I learned about myself as a practitioner?

5. Sharing       

• How will I share what I’ve learned?                         
• How can I develop this further?

The national model of professional learning identifies learning by enquiry as one of the key elements of effective professional learning. By taking an enquiring stance to practice participants are encouraged to display professional courage and ask critically reflective questions about themselves and the learning that happens in their setting. By opening up their practice through enquiry and engaging with current research and literature, practitioners can more clearly identify areas of change to enhance learning and teaching and learner outcomes. Enquiry based professional learning encourages informed decision making and clearer articulation of ‘why’ we are teaching and learning in the way we are, promoting voice around the 'so what?’ and 'what now'? to enable practitioners to plan their next steps.

The final phase of the programme is the National Sharing the Learning Summit where all participants and invited guests to come together to share practice, celebrate learning and make connections in an active learning community.

Each participant hosts a table discussion sharing their leadership learning journey and engages in meaningful professional dialogue. In addition, the enquiry posters that the participants create are enlarged and displayed for everyone to engage with and discuss. These enquiry posters are also available online for wider sharing purposes. The sharing element of the programme is extremely valuable, as participant Joanne Taylor from South Lanarkshire explains,

“The best bit of the Teacher Leadership Programme is days like today. That ability to network and engage with other professionals. To be able to share journeys and ideas and learn from each other. Leadership and learning isn’t just about what you do as a practitioner yourself, it is how you can be a team with other professionals across the country and how you can then take that back to your own establishments and own classrooms”.

The Professional Learning and Leadership Team (formally called SCEL) are very much looking forward to working with another cohort of 260 participants for the 2019/2020 programme. Applications for the 2020/2019 programme open in January 2020 and details can be accessed here.