Teacher Leaders as Action Researchers
In ECI 508, Teachers as Leaders, we learned about the many ways in which teachers can lead in the profession without leaving the classroom. One such way is to conduct action research. In an article entitled "The Crossroads of Teacher Leadership and Action Research" the authors discuss the important role of "teacherpreneurs" in leading the profession in what works best for students. "One way to accomplish this is for teacherpreneurs to be action researchers who share their findings beyond the walls of their own classroom - with their colleagues, policymakers, and the public at large" (Lee, Sachs, and Wheeler 2014, 218). By conducting my own action research to determine how a service learning project would help to create globally-minded students I am engaging in teacher leadership. Furthermore, I have helped to spread this project from my own classroom to other classrooms as well. In the first year of the project, only students who had me as a teacher were able to participate in the project. However, after sharing my results with my colleagues at the end of year one, the entire eighth grade decided to take on the project for year two, meaning that all students in the 8th grade were able to partake in the Day of Service!