Accountability policies constitute a form of surveillance that in many cases serve
to suppress teachers’ leadership from within the classroom for the benefit of
students. However, some teachers working in schools that are operating under
surveillance from accountability policies successfully practice this type of teacher
leadership. The Theory of the U (Scharmer, 2009b; Senge et al., 2005) may
explain why some teachers succeed in exhibiting leadership under conditions of
accountability. In order to explore the theory of the U as a theoretical basis for
teacher leadership, this study employed phenomenology as both philosophical
approach and method to uncover the lived experiences of teacher leaders in lowperforming
and underperforming schools in order to answer these research
questions:
x How do teacher leaders (TLs) perceive and describe their experience of
teacher leadership?
x How do the pressures of accountability policies such as NCLB or Race to the
Top figure in teacher leaders’ lived experiences?
x What constraints on their leadership do teacher leaders perceive?
x What are teacher leaders’ perceptions of supports/mediating factors that
enable them to demonstrate leadership?
x What strategies do teacher leaders employ to negotiate structural constraints
on teacher leadership?
x What similarities and/or differences are there in the experiences of TLs who
have left the classroom versus those who have stayed?
Three interviews were conducted with each of eight participants who were
recognized by others as teachers who led from within the classroom for the
benefit of students following the procedure for phenomenological interviewing
advocated by Seidman (1991). Half of the participants continued to teach in lowperforming
schools and half had left the classroom and were working as new
teacher coaches. Data were analyzed using the method of phenomenological
analysis presented by Moustakas (1994). Analysis occurred in four stages: 1)
open, descriptive coding; 2) identifying invariant constituents by eliminating
codes that are not necessary and sufficient to understanding the experience; 3)
clustering invariant constituents into themes; and 4) checking the themes against
the participant’s entire case file. Profiles of each participant’s experience of the
research questions were developed. Themes were developed and articulated
across all participants as well as for each group, teachers who stayed in the
classroom and those who left. Common themes that emerged across the
research questions included support from collaboration and from colleagues and
support from administration. All of the teacher leaders experienced conflicting
values as a constraint. Overall, the teacher leaders shared an overriding sense of
personal responsibility and an intense focus on meeting the needs of their
students.