Exploring Teacher Leadership
Workshop Plan
Workshop Plan for Facilitators
The purpose of this workshop is to support teachers to explore the meaning of ‘teacher leadership’ and to
begin to identify the ways in which teacher leadership could be supported in your context. This workshop was
originally developed and delivered as part of the Scottish College for Educational Leadership’s engagement
on teacher leadership between November 2015 and March 2016. This culminated in the report which is
included with these resources. You can find out much more about this engagement on scelengage.com
This guide is aimed at facilitators who are leading the workshop. This could be done as part of a school or
cluster in-service day or collegiate time. Please feel free to adapt and use as appropriate in your setting. We
would however appreciate any feedback on how you used the workshop materials via the included form.
Session is carried out in groups of approximately five, which are mixed in terms of context/background at the
beginning of the session, but remain in these groups throughout the session in order to build cohesion within
the groups.
Participants are just asked to identify their context/background to their group and ensure that the groups are
mixed. Although the session stages are inspired by the Theory U process, this won’t be shared with the
participants until the end of the session.
Learning Outcomes
We will leave the session having,



developed our understanding of teacher leadership and our role as leaders.
co-constructed approaches to supporting teacher leadership which could be applied within our
community.
experienced an innovative participatory workshop approach which we could develop and use in our
own practice.
1. Downloading: Icebreaker task which also quickly addresses the barriers to effective teacher leadership
and symbolises the removal of these barriers from our session. Participants take a piece of A4 paper and
draw a circle divided into four segments. They then complete the circle as follows:
 In one segment of their circle they write a barrier to effective teacher leadership.
 They then scrumple up the piece of paper and throw it across the room. They then pick up a piece
of paper which has landed near them and add their barrier. If there has already been written, they
add a different one.
 This continues until all the segments on each piece of paper is completed. Participants look at
and consider the circle they have ended up with.
 Participants are asked to share barriers which they hadn’t thought of, or common themes between
barriers. The facilitator acknowledges these barriers but tries to maintain pace in the session by
not discussing them for too long. Links could be made between the barriers arising and those
identified in SCEL’s Developing Teacher Leadership report.
 Following a brief discussion the pieces of paper are rolled up again and thrown into a bin which
signifies the removal of barriers for the purposes of this session.
 Resources: Paper, Pens, Bin.
2. Co-initiating: Short activity aimed at uncovering the common intent between participants. Participants
are asked to consider the following question individually, and then briefly in groups: ‘What is the purpose
of education?’
 Participants are then presented with the following handout on A3 paper and asked to identify
overlaps/differences between these purposes and their own.


Following discussion, participants (hopefully) identify significant overlap between each other’s
purposes and the purposes identified in the handout.
It is then revealed to the participants that these statements are copied and pasted from the Four
Capacities from Curriculum for Excellence. The purpose being that we already have a shared set
of purposes for education that each of us can find our own purposes in.

Resources: A3 handout
3. Co-sensing: Longer activity aimed at finding out what teacher leadership is.
 Groups are presented with the question, what is teacher leadership? Ideas are captured and
shared as mindmaps/lists on flipcharts.
 Groups are then presented with the handout ‘Exploring Teacher Leadership’ from the SCEL
Framework and asked to consider any similarities and differences between their ideas and those
in the handout.
 Collective discussion following the sharing of each group.
 Facilitator closes with the point that whilst this is a vision of teacher leadership which most can
aspire to, it is in many ways aspirational. What therefore is needed to help us to realise this
aspiration from ourselves and others?
 Resources: Flipchart paper, flipchart pens, Exploring Teacher Leadership handout
4. Presencing: Short silent reflective activity to encourage participants to consider their role in the
development of teacher leadership. As members of the system, we all have a part to play in realising the
vision for teacher leadership.
 Short mindfulness step [optional]. This can be useful to change the mood in the room in
preparation for silent reflection.
 Silent reflection with stimulus question, what’s my role in developing teacher leadership?


Sharing from this activity is optional.
Resources: None
5. Co-creating: Longer activity in which participants co-create the future for teacher leadership support in
their context.
 Groups are presented with the question, what can be done to support the development of teacher
leadership?
 Groups should be encouraged to capture realistic ideas which could be implemented in their
context on flipchart paper.
 Collective discussion following the sharing of each group.
 Resources: Flipchart paper, flipchart pens
6. Co-evolving: Introduction to and explanation of scelengage.com
 Explanation that an engagement was carried out by SCEL between December 2015 and
March 2016. All of the outcomes and the report from this work is available on scelengage.com.
 Invitation extended to participants to share ideas, thoughts and practice developed in their
context online through scelengage.com or the hashtag tellscel.
 Resources: None
7. Next Steps: Explanation and credit given to the Theory U process used. Engagement Themes. SCEL
Framework for Educational Leadership.
 Theory U: The session is based on Theory U and ULab. There is more information about this
approach here: scelengage.com/ulab
 Engagement Themes: Facilitator could outline the themes which arose from the engagement
outlined
in
the
summary
of
the
report:
http://www.scelscotland.org.uk/whatshappening/news/developing-teacher-leadership/
 SCEL Framework: Teachers could be encouraged to sign up to the free SCEL Framework for
Educational Leadership which includes professional learning activities to support the development
of leadership at all levels, including for classroom teachers.
Timings
Session (mins)
Welcome
Downloading
Common Intent
Co-sensing
Presencing
Co-creating
Co-evolving
Next Steps
60
5
7
7
11
7
11
7
5
90
5
10
10
20
10
20
10
5
120
10
10
10
30
10
30
10
10
180
10
15
15
45
17
45
15
10