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Teacher leaders function in many roles in supporting school success including instructional leadership and supporting colleagues. This study draws upon the Status of the Social Studies Survey (Fitchett, P. G., and P. J. Vanfossen. 2013. 'Survey on the Status of Social Studies: Development and Analysis.' "Social Studies Research and Practice" 8 (1): 1-23.) to examine the responses of 6,702 US-based middle and high school social studies teachers to understand the antecedents of teacher leadership and the instructional practices of these individuals compared to their peers. Survey responses indicate that the vast majority of social studies teachers report participating in some aspect of teacher leadership. Teacher leaders tend to be less experienced and have less educational attainment while employing more research-based instructional techniques.

Teacher leadership has received attention for empirical and practical reasons. However, despite the evolution of the concept over the last several decades, there is still dissonance regarding the concept of teacher leadership. This study was grounded in the theory of professional identity to understand how administrators and teachers conceptualize teacher leadership. We studied the perceptions of administrators and teachers about teacher leadership using a survey and interviews. While there was some overlap in how administrators and teachers perceived teacher leadership, administrators viewed teacher leadership as occurring outside of the classroom while teachers located it inside of the classroom. Teachers also valued formal and informal mentoring. We provide implications for research and practice based on these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]