Becoming a teacher leader: exploring Malaysian in-service teachers perceptions, readiness and challenges

Abstract

The ever growing demand for educational transformation in Malaysia has placed greater responsibilities upon school leaders to improve school performance. This brings to light the need to explore alternative approaches of school leadership where teachers can be roped in to help, lead and manage the operational tasks of the school. This study explores in-service teachers’ perceptions of teacher leadership within their contexts. The study also investigates teachers’ readiness and the challenges they face while practising informal teacher leader roles. The study employs a mixed-methods design and data were collected through questionnaires from 587 primary and 189 secondary in-service teachers and semi-structured interviews with eight selected teachers. In-service teachers have positive perceptions towards teacher leadership with most acknowledging familiarity with the concept. They admitted that they were ready to be selected as informal teacher leaders, for professional reasons. The findings further reveal that in-service teachers face challenges from various parties within the school community in executing their role as teacher leaders. Moreover, the findings recommend a framework for policy and school based initiatives for improving teacher leadership practices in Malaysian school context.