School leadership and teacher leadership

The proponents of effective school leadership maintain that leadership within the school context should not necessarily be positional, meaning that leadership should be based on influence rather than official position. The role of teachers as leaders has taken center stage in school leadership recently. This chapter conceptualizes the notion of teacher leadership and provides a comprehensive literature review on practices of teacher leadership in South African schools. The challenges and opportunities experienced by school leaders in enhancing teacher leadership within the model of distributed leadership are discussed. The chapter draws some lessons on how teacher leadership within the South African school context could be enhanced.