The role of teachers continues to change as they receive new responsibilities and roles within their schools. Through engagement in professional development, teachers receive unique opportunities to become leaders within their schools by promoting student achievement and enhancing school practices and policies, particularly for STEM education. However, due to a shortage of qualified teachers in STEM education, teacher leaders are becoming even more imperative for supporting learner growth and promotion of STEM related fields. Further, STEM teacher leaders provide mentorship to their colleagues in their integration of STEM curriculum and innovative technologies that enhance student learning. This chapter highlights the importance of teacher leaders and their positive impacts in furthering STEM education initiatives and activities within their schools and districts.
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The role of teacher leader has continued to grow in the current public educational structure found in the Unites States. In fact, Supovitz (2018) contended that “Teacher leadership efforts have evolved considerably over the past several decades as education reformers have increasingly integrated teacher leaders into both school-wide improvement strategies and instructional support efforts” (p. 76). As Wenner and Campbell (2017) noted, teacher leaders have the opportunity to lead their schools by encouraging teacher professional development, increasing teacher collaboration, providing peer assistance with differentiation of instruction, and by modeling best teaching practices. Teacher leaders assume many roles in supporting and leading their schools and students to success. Particularly, teacher leadership is a vital component in modern educational models because teacher leaders can influence student achievement, school practices and policies, and the teaching profession as a whole (Merril & Daugherty, 2010; Rajbanshi, 2020). Moreover, research indicates that there is a shortage of qualified individuals in science, education, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education who are trained to instruct future generations for the growing occupations in these fields (Avendano, 2019). One reason that students are resistant to entering these fields is due to their academic mindsets and self-beliefs in belonging and being accepted in STEM (Kricorian et al., 2020).
While much emphasis has been placed on the role of teacher-student relationships in the role of student advancement in the STEM fields, Olson and Laboy (2014) indicated that the teacher’s voice is often lacking in the discussion of initiatives considered necessary in preparing educators in STEM curriculum, including professional development, career advancement, evaluation, and compensation. Further, as Hutchinson (2020) postulated, “when opportunities for teacher leadership are lacking, teachers become isolated within K-12 systems, disengaged with teaching, and disengaged from the teaching profession” (p. ii). Therefore, this chapter explores the influential role of a teacher leader in the STEM field, analyzes their potential for impact in the STEM community, and identifies ways for their successful implementation of cutting-edge technologies that promote the teaching and learning processes. Additionally, emphasis within this chapter is placed on the teacher leaders’ voice in proposing and implementing technologies that support STEM education. The text also evaluates the teacher leaders’ professional needs in reaching this significant level of influence and the challenges they face in this role. Particularly, this chapter provides insight into STEM teachers and their professional needs in becoming school leaders and proponents in developing technology infused STEM curriculum.