Teacher Professionalism as an Impetus for Teacher Leadership to Lead Schools: A Retrospective Study

Teaching encompasses leadership knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Teachers, as professionals, draw their leadership power from competencies, influences, relationships, or expertise, but current leadership models position teachers as followers, not as leaders. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that teachers, whatsoever their situation, position, or belief may be, are leaders of classrooms and schools without stepping up to formal roles. The Toulmin method of argument was employed to support and reason out the main claim. The findings of the study suggested that leadership is not a special role of a particular person; it includes all facets of schools and communities, particularly teachers. The author argued and identified a number of leadership attributes exhibited by teachers, and subsequently discussed teacher professionalism to show whether it is the only source for teachers to demonstrate leadership. Eventually, it has been concluded and corroborated that teachers, by their very profession, are leaders of classrooms and schools; though teachers may not be aware. Programs of teacher leadership are essential not to make teachers leaders, as teachers are already leaders of their schools, but to make them more conscious of their leadership functions and improve upon them on a daily basis.