2009 Policy and Research Forums - Ann Lieberman

Teacher learning and leading: the key to educational reform

Ann Lieberman

Dr Ann Lieberman recommends the transformation and reconceptualisation of professional learning for practising teachers as a powerful means of educational reform. Without the help of teachers as leaders working in learning communities, change will be difficult.

  • What are teacher leaders?
  • How are they developed and supported?
  • How is teacher learning the key to educational reform?
  • How can networks shape the future of teacher learning?
  • What are the implications for educating those entering teaching?

About the presenter

Dr Ann Lieberman is Emeritus Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Previously a Senior Scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, she is now a Senior Scholar at Stanford University.  She is widely known for her work in the areas of teacher leadership and development, collaborative research, networks and school-university partnerships, and increasingly, on the problems and prospects for understanding educational change. She has been able link school and university life to become both a scholar and an activist, a practitioner and a theoretician. She brings research to the field and acknowledges that learning from the field is crucial for building knowledge about teaching and learning. 

Her recent books include Teachers: Transforming Their World and Their Work and Teachers Caught in the Action: The Work of Professional Development, with Lynne Miller. She has just completed a book with Diane Wood entitled Inside the National Writing Project: Network Learning and Classroom Teaching, a new synthesis to be published by the Teachers College Press.

More information

Ann Lieberman forum - learning to lead (PDF - 338Kb)