Re-imagining novice teachers as leaders in building a community of educational leaders and researchers

There is much literature to indicate that, in the field of teacher leadership, teachers can enact a reflective practice role as they operate as action researchers in their classrooms and schools. However, novice teachers are seldom considered as leaders or researchers, particularly in the South African schooling context. We report on a qualitative study in which the reflection journals of 20 second, third, fourth year and PGCE university education students on their school Teaching Practice experience were explored to gather data. Conceptualized within a distributed teacher leadership framework, this article argues that novice teachers are often an untapped leadership source as they are not viewed as potential agents of change. We contend that, in order to build a community of educational researchers, these novice teachers need to be re-imagined as teacher leaders and be educated about their valuable change agency role in the schooling context. Furthermore, it is imperative that the degree for which they are registered engages with what it means for novice teachers to enact leadership and supports them in theorizing and developing critical reflective practice skills. In this way, there is likelihood that novice teachers will be able to take-up their leadership role as they embark on a process of action research in their first teaching post.