Teacher Leadership: Effects on Job Satisfaction and Teacher Retention

Teacher leadership may affect job satisfaction in positive ways, helping to retain teachers in the field of public education.Providing and facilitating these positions may enable school districts to improve upon the growing teacher retention crisis.Thus, this study explores the ways teacher leadership relates to job satisfaction.Semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and document reviews are utilized to understand how teacher leadership roles relate to job satisfaction.This qualitative case study explores how four teacher leaders in one school district perceive their roles, responsibilities, and experiences.Each of the teacher leaders completed a formal Teacher Leadership Endorsement Program (TLEP) through an accredited university and are classroom teachers in addition to their leadership duties.The gathered data indicate that the teacher leadership role does not stand alone in improving job satisfaction and retention.Instead, it is the interplay between the teacher leader role and the TLEP that improved job satisfaction and retention in the four teacher leaders studied.Additionally, teacher leaders showed increased levels of empowerment, confidence, self-efficacy, decision making, and autonomy by having a teacher leadership role in addition to TLEP training.The results of this study should encourage policymakers and educational leaders to not only support teacher leaders practices but also teacher leadership training through formal TLEP's.