The Roles and Practices of Specialists in Teamed Institutional Leadership

Abstract

This article explores the role of leadership, experts, and expertise and the functioning of teams in nine schools that modeled an exemplary integration of technology to support schoolwide instructional improvement. Through cross-case analysis, we identified three different staffing patterns and two different support patterns in how the technology integration specialists worked with teachers to integrate educational technology. Despite having no supervisory authority, these specialists provided support and pressure for instructional change. Their power to make change came not from line authority, but from their expertise and teachers’ need to learn what they could offer. Although research on instructional leadership typically focuses on principals or designated teachers, we argue for expanding such research to include support provided by nonteaching professionals.