UCLA

Teachers as leaders may provide additional leadership to build school capacity, but there is minimal understanding of how to cultivate teacher leadership. Twenty-seven elementary teacher leaders in southern California were interviewed about what experiences led them to become and supported them as teacher leaders. Ideas around how they became teacher leaders, who and what influenced their leadership, and why they pursued certain leadership roles were collected. The findings showed how these teachers had a passion in education that drove them to lead and sustained them as a leader; relationships formed the foundation of why and how they led; and their leadership journeys had unique nuances, but were similar in the patterns of their development. These stories showed that leadership can be cultivated and challenged the idea that leaders are born.