Teacher leadership in higher education: A theoretical review

Abstract

Higher education is an essential context for studying teacher leadership. It is a dynamic field that creates a challenging continuously renewed work environment for teachers with multiple changing roles and targets, including cross-boundary teaching, development work, and leadership assignments. The objective of this theoretical review is to investigate the specific features of teacher leadership discussed in the higher education literature and, in doing so, generate a theoretical model. With reference to previous literature reviews focusing on teacher leadership in other contexts, this study presents a theoretical review of 77 peer-reviewed articles on the topic of teacher leadership solely in the higher education context. A key outcome of the review is the presentation of a new model of teacher leadership that incorporates possible manifestations of teacher leaders’ influence and reflects peculiarities of teacher leadership in the higher education context, such as discipline advocacy and quality stewardship as principles of leadership, and identity management as a contingency dimension in facilitating leadership practice. In guiding the future orientation of teacher leadership research in higher education, the study introduces the concept of polarity to discuss controversies within teacher leadership in higher education.