ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø

Overview

The SLI developed the School Leadership Identification Framework (SLIF) to identify and develop teacher leaders as potential future school leaders. As part of this process the SLI conducted research into how best to identify and develop teacher leaders who aspire to formal leadership roles.

The Identification of Future School Leaders in NSW Public Schools report examines:

• behaviours and capabilities of teachers that indicate their readiness for leadership development
• relationships (or correlations) between leadership behaviours and capabilities
• the alignment of the SLIF to the NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø’s Performance and Development Framework (PDF)
• how teachers and school leaders within the department perceive teacher leader behaviours and capabilities.

The report is based on in-depth focus groups as well as a random survey of more than 900 teachers and school leaders.

It found there are consistent behaviours and capabilities that identify teacher leaders; and that aligning the SLIF to the Performance and Development Plan (PDP) was strongly supported.

The report has been used by the SLI to develop the SLIF resources to identify and develop teacher leaders.

Report methodology

The research basis of this report was drawn from an initial focus group of NSW public school educators, a statewide survey and a review of relevant literature.

The initial focus groups were conducted in November 2019 to gather data from teachers and school leaders in NSW public schools. The groups comprised teachers and school leaders from various settings, substantive positions, gender, school type and experience.

The survey was emailed to a random sample of 3000 educators with 906 responses. This survey asked participants to reflect on the behaviours relevant to teacher leaders using a 5-point Likert scale. Participants reflected on how frequently each behaviour - derived from the AITSL Principal Standard and adapted for the teacher leader context - was demonstrated in a teacher leader. This constituted a series of 47 questions.

Participants were given the opportunity to respond to 2 open-ended questions exploring typical teacher leadership behaviours and to provide further comments.

Findings

The report has 2 conclusions.

• It identified behaviours and capabilities as reliable indicators of teachers who have transitioned to teacher leaders. These could be used to identify teacher leaders who have the potential to undertake further leadership learning and prepare for formal middle leadership positions or enhance their impact on student and teacher learning.
• The strong respondent data justifies connecting the SLIF to existing processes, policies and procedures. In particular, the study found that there were high levels of support for aligning the SLIF to the PDP process. Respondents also strongly supported the process of self-nomination as a teacher leader, the ability to select a mentor and a higher frequency of observations and feedback meetings as key features of the SLIF.

Note: From 2025, the SLIF has been replaced with the ). This is a formal program of teacher leadership development and is available to all NSW public school teachers.

Further reading

Visit the SLI's Leadership Resources pages (available to staff only) to find out more about the leadership development programs we offer for current and aspiring leaders in NSW public schools.