| This study examined nine elementary school teachers' journeys to construct a teacher leader identity. The teachers in this study were all classroom teachers whose primary job is teaching. Teachers in formal teacher leadership positions, whose work is primarily with adults, were exempt from this study. Using the question, "what is the constructivist path for teachers in creating a leader identity," I sought to uncover how teachers construct a teacher-leader identity. Participants wrote four autobiographical narratives answering an essential question each time: "Who am I?", "Where am I?", "How do I lead?", and "What can I do?" (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 1996). To analyze the narratives, I employed three analytic tools: emplotment, three-dimensional inquiry space, and narrative configuration. Although each teacher's story is unique, the leadership narratives resulted in four templates---member, servant, model, and change agent---that illustrate how she came to understand herself as a leader. These templates emerged from the narrative language that teachers used to construct a teacher-leader identity. Regardless of the narrative template, each teacher showed a process of having to straddle the line (Mishler, 1999) between personal- and professional-selves, polarized views of leadership, and teaching and leading. |
