Understanding teacher leadership in middle school mathematics: A collaborative research effort

J.E. PUSTEJOVSKY and J.P. SPILLANE Dept. of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern Universi~y Evanston, IL 60208 j-pusteiovskv(a)northwestern.edu RM.HEATON Dept. of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education, Universiry of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0355 W.J. LEWIS Dept. of Mathematics, Universiry of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-0355 We report findings from a collaborative research effort designed to examine how teachers act as leaders in their schools. We find that teachers educated by the Math in the Middle Institute act as key sources of advice for colleagues within their schools while drawing support from a network consisting of other teachers in the program and university-level advisors. In addition to reporting on our findings, we reflect on our research process, noting some of the practical challenges involved, as well as some of the benefits of collaboration. Introduction A sizable amount of literature addresses aspects of teacher leadership in schools, including how to develop the leadership skills of classroom teachers [1]. Educating and supporting Teacher Leaders for middle school mathematics is the central goal of the Math in the Middle Institute Partnership, a project developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and funded by a Mathematics and Science Partnership grant from the National Science Foundation. The Math in the Middle (M2) project offers a 25-month master's program for outstanding middle-level mathematics teachers, referred to here as M2 associates, helping them to become intellectual leaders in their schools, districts, and beyond. As the co-principal investigators of Math in the Middle have described in another article in this issue, the M2 Institute focuses not just on providing professional development, but also on seeking evidence-based findings about learning, teaching, and leadership development [2]. 19 The Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations Volume 11 (2009) 19-40 20 J.E. PUSTEJOVSKY, J.P. SPILLANE, R. M. HEATON and W. J. LEWIS As part of the M2 research initiative, the M2 principal investigators have enlisted help from the Distributed Leadership Study for Middle School Mathematics Education (DLS). This project, centered at Northwestern University and also funded by a National Science Foundation grant, uses the theoretical and diagnostic framework of Distributed Leadership to study school leadership [3]. The project has designed a web-based survey instrument, the School Staff Social Network Questionnaire (SSSNQ), to collect empirical data about leadership practice in elementary and middle schools. Operationalizing leadership as social influence relations, the SSSNQ uses a social network approach to measure leadership interactions. The SSSNQ captures data that is relevant to two of the M2 Institute's primary goals. One of the goals of the M2 Institute is to build teachers' capacities to become intellectual leaders for mathematics instruction in their schools. The SSSNQ social network data from within a school enables us to understand the extent to which M2 associates act as sources of advice about instruction for their colleagues. In addition, by bringing participants together for intensive summer workshops and academic year courses, the M2 Institute seeks to build an enduring support network among associates, and between associates and university-level faculty. The SSSNQ data on the social network among M2 program participants allows us to understand advice seeking behavior that is prevalent outside the school building. The alignment between the research goals of the M2 Institute and the survey instrument designed by the DLS created a natural opportunity for collaboration. Working closely together, we administered the survey to all M2 associates and to the entire staff of ten middle schools where M2 associates work. In this report, we describe our research process and share some initial findings regarding how M2 associates act as leaders within their schools. We also reflect on our collaboration, in the hopes that discussing the advantages of collaboration and the practical challenges we encountered might be helpful to others engaged in similar research. Our report contains the following: a description of the design of the survey instrument and the process of administering it; a discussion of our approach to analysis and our report of the initial results; our description of how we were able to share some findings with the participating schools; and, our concluding remarks. Instrument (Re )Design The distributed perspective is a theoretical or diagnostic framework for examining the practice of leading and managing. In contrast to more conventional leadership perspectives, UNDERSTANDING TEACHER LEADERSHIP IN MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS . 21 which tend to emphasize the heroic efforts and personal qualities of individual leaders, the distributed perspective emphasizes the practice of leading and managing. It views leadership practice as taking form in the interactions among leaders and followers, as mediated by aspects of their context, such as organizational routines and tools. Informed by the distributed perspective, the SSSNQ instrument is a web-based survey designed to collect data on interactions among leaders and followers, as well as aspects of the school context. The instrument used in the work reported here is the fourth iteration of the SSSNQ [4]. The SSSNQ operationalizes aspects of the Distributed Leadership perspective by capturing data on interactions between leaders and followers, measured from the perspective of the follower [4, 5). Interactions are measured using social network name generators, which ask survey respondents to recall interactions where they sought advice from others. For example, respondents who teach mathematics are asked, "In the past year, to whom have you gone for advice or information about teaching math? " For each name that a respondent lists, follow-up questions ask the respondent to describe the role or job description of the person named, and to characterize their interactions with the person in terms of frequency of interaction, influence of advice provided, and content matter of advice provided. The SSSNQ actually poses several social network name generator questions to differentiate between subject areas because our previous research suggests that the structure of relationships among teachers and the nature of their thinking about their work differ by school subject [6, 7). All staff members are asked to name people to whom they go for advice about Mathematics and advice about Reading/Writing/Language Arts (RWLA). Teachers whose ~pecialty subject is something other than Mathematics or RWLA are also asked to name people to whom they go for advice about teaching their primary subject. In the analysis that follows, we focus on the social network name generator part of the instrument. However, the survey also contains several other types of questions that address aspects of respondents' situations. Respondents are asked about their positions or roles, their formal leadership designations (if any), and their participation in school committees. They are also asked a series of questions about the cultural climate of their school. Based on feedback from teachers who have taken the survey, we have found that the SSSNQ provides an opportunity for reflection about the past school year that many teachers welcome. In all, the survey takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes to complete. A sample version of the instrument can be viewed on our website [8]. 22 J . E. PUSTEJOVSKY, J.P. SPILLANE, R. M. 1-IEA TON and W. J. LEWIS The collaboration between the M2 Institute and the DLS afforded us a beneficial opportunity for redesigning the SSSNQ. The M2 Institute staff from UNL had been working with mathematics teachers in the middle schools we planned to survey, and therefore had a practical understanding of local school cultures and concerns. Drawing on this understanding, we worked together to tailor the wording of survey questions for ease of interpretation in the local school context. Conducting a pilot survey study or cognitive interview study is certainly the best way to field test a survey for reliability and validity [9]. Short of this, using our collaborators' understanding of local school cultures helped us decrease the likelihood that respondents would misinterpret questions in the survey instrument. Data Collection Social network survey items present some unique challenges compared to standard survey items, including the need for very high response rates, the need to define a network boundary, and the need to protect participants' confidentiality when using a research design that necessarily lacks anonymity [10, 11]. High response rates are imperative because many network measures, though defined at the level of the individual, are calculated based on peer reports that aggregate responses from many individuals. The reliability of a network measure suffers when response rates are low or even moderate by the usual standards of survey research [12]. In light of these requirements, our strategy for data collection included finding ways to encourage very high levels of participation. Data collection entailed working with two partially overlapping study populations, each of which has a natural network boundary. First, we surveyed all M2 associates in order to understand the social network operating within the program. Here, the network boundary is defined by participation in the M2 program. Second, we focused on several schools in a single district (the "Target District") where a number of M2 associates worked. For this population, the network boundary is defined by the school building. Using the SSSNQ, we conducted a census of the entire teaching staff in each school, providing peer-report data from the perspective of followers that allows us to understand how M2 associates are situated within th