‘But there is a real commitment’: making sense of language teacher leadership in secondary schools in England

Informed by distributed leadership and ecological systems theory, this paper explores how language teacher leadership is understood and enacted through the lens of commitment to language education (i.e. commitment to its importance and improvement) in secondary schools in England. The study draws on two sets of data: impact tracking data and case studies from the National Consortium for Languages Education (NCLE). When probed through the survey, teachers demonstrate a clear and coherent understanding of leadership. Key features of leadership identified, i.e. commitment and courage of conviction, are closely associated with working under conditions of sustained adversity, reflecting broader challenges facing languages education in England. Case study analysis further reveals how commitment is enacted across interconnected actors, including senior leaders, governors, middle leaders, school staff, parents and pupils. These findings advance a subject-specific understanding of teacher leadership, and commitment thus emerges as a central organising principle of languages teacher leadership, linking shared purpose with practice across school communities. ‘Real’ commitment extends beyond moral or rhetorical endorsement. It constitutes a system-wide enactment of shared values around languages, multilingualism, and inclusive practices, realised through strategies and structural conditions.