To Lead or Not to Lead? That Is the Question

Abstract

This chapter is informed by the findings of a longitudinal study of the personal and professional factors that keep early career teachers engaged and interested in their work in New Zealand schools. The New Zealand study entitled “Teachers of Promise” began tracking the professional lives of a purposive sample of 57 primary and secondary teachers who were in their third year of teaching in 2005. We returned to these teachers in their ninth year with an online survey and interviewed 20 of those still teaching in 2011. This gave us an opportunity to record career progressions, working conditions, and satisfactions and challenges. The focus of this chapter is the teachers’ conceptions and experiences of leadership as part of their career trajectories and the extent to which their employing schools distributed and supported leadership opportunities to help their career advancement. Our data highlight the extent to which leadership is viewed as an attractive option and how others nurture those with potential for leadership roles. We discuss these data alongside relevant issues from the literature and conclude with suggestions for making leadership work a more enticing career option.