Social identity approach to understanding teacher-leadership

• A social identity approach to teacher-leadership is adopted as an underexplored and relatively new perspective on the topic. • In consideration of the promotion of distributed leadership practices and policies, teachers’ identification and disidentification as teacher-leaders is shown to impact on their willingness to engage with leadership activities and practices within schools. • A dark side of teacher-leadership which is relatively unaccounted for in previous literature is presented on the basis of the research findings. • Formal leadership is shown, at times, to prevent teachers engaging in informal leadership activities through indirect social communication including perceived leadership cliques and in-group out-group expectations for leadership practices. • Principalship has the potential to promote or prevent teacher-leadership from occurring. Teacher-leadership has received significant consideration in recent years, being frequently acknowledged as inconsistently defined. Through the lens of social identity theory, the current study explores the concept of teacher-leadership identity from the perspective of teachers not holding formal leadership positions. The study adopts a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews with 14 practicing schoolteachers in Ireland, none of whom hold a formal leadership position. Results highlight the reasons why schoolteachers identify or disidentify as teacher-leaders, and the impact this can have on their engagement with leadership practices and behaviours. Formal leadership emerged as a specific barrier to informal leadership, confounded by perceptions of formal leadership cliques and exclusion of non-formal leaders. A dark side of teacher-leadership also emerged with informal leaders experiencing a lack of recognition or appreciation for their efforts, negative treatment from formal leaders, and a lack of support from formal leaders, including the principal. The role of the principal in promoting or inhibiting teacher-leadership also emerged, highlighting the pivotal role they play in the promotion of teacher-leadership in schools. Suggestions for policy, practice, and research are presented.