Profile of Teacher Leaders in an Indonesian School Context: How the Teachers Perceive Themselves

Abstract

Teacher leaders play an important role in advancing learning in schools. However, this theme is under- researched, particularly in the Indonesian school context. This study investigated how Indonesian teachers rate themselves as being teacher leaders using the Teacher Leadership Self-Assessment (TLSA) instrument with a quantitative approach. The data was collected from 3,564 teachers from Lampung Province, Indonesia, with a cross-sectional method using an online platform. The collected data was analysed using the Rasch Analysis approach and showed good reliability and validity for the TLSA instrument as well as the Indonesian data. The findings showed that Indonesian teachers perceived themselves as having high levels of teacher leadership, but at the same time, the behaviours under the construct of communication were rarely engaged in and was thus identified as an area for improvement. Meanwhile, in terms of perceiving themselves as teacher leaders, the senior teachers, and those with more working experience were more significantly different in many constructs compared to the other demographic variables. The implications of this study suggest that there is still room to enhance teacher leadership by identifying the constructs and considering the teachers’ demographic variables.