Teachers’ Abstracted Conceptualizations of Their Way in Experiencing the Leadership in the Classroom: Transferring Knowledge, Expanding Learning Capacity, and Creating Knowledge

Abstract

Despite the abundance of decades of research into teacher leadership, uncertainty remains due to confusion around the notions of teacher leadership and the unity or at least the authenticity of definitions, and there is a need for a deeper understanding of this leadership process as the teacher works with students in the classroom. The existing definitions and descriptions of teacher leadership do not determine the connection between teacher leadership and student learning, and the subject remains empirically unsubstantiated. The aim of this study was to develop a set of categories of description derived from the teachers’ conceptions of their leadership in the classroom through learning interactions with students. The study was based on the phenomenographic research methodology. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with 37 teachers. A phenomenographic analysis sought a description, analysis, and understanding of experiences with the focus on variation in the conceptions of the phenomenon, as experienced by teachers. Findings revealed that teachers discern their leadership through working with students at school in three stages represented by three categories of description—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge. All these stages are linked by teacher-student interaction which facilitates successful and meaningful learning for students within the classroom. The connections between the three stages demonstrate the need for teacher–student collaboration, teaching personalization, the professional expertise of the teacher, and learning cocreation. The findings of this study contribute to the expansion of the concept of teacher leadership not only as expert influence through the application of specific teaching methods, but as a coherent process from knowledge transfer to its creation through reciprocal teacher–student learning in the classroom.

1. Introduction

Teacher leadership starts in the classroom [1] and advances a conducive learning environment that fosters educational motivation and promotes student performance [2]. Strong leadership is essential for student growth in the classroom as teacher leaders believe their primary purpose is to maximize student development [3]. According to Harris and Jones, teacher leadership is an influence rather than a role or a formal responsibility, it is an action that goes beyond teachers’ formally assigned classroom roles in order to share practice and initiate changes, and it develops pedagogical excellence within the classroom and beyond to influence the practice of others [4]. Thus, teacher leadership in the classroom is related to the facilitation of learning when learning problems are observed and solved through cooperation with students, when the weaknesses and strengths of student learning are identified through educational interactions with students, and when students’ learning needs are recognized and effective teaching and learning strategies are designed to lead them to academic success by expanding their learning capacity [5]. Despite extensive research in the general area of educational leadership, there are a variety of definitions of teacher leadership because teachers are engaged in a wide range of activities and roles that may involve leadership. Teacher leadership is defined as leading within and beyond the classroom; contributing to a community of teachers, learners, and leaders; and influencing others towards improved educational practice [6]. Definitions involve strategic planning, addressing moral issues in educational settings, improving student achievement, extending the teachers’ own learning, collaborating for school improvement, and supporting shared vision and values amongst other endeavors. Regardless of the components identified in the definitions of teacher leadership, they are united by learning, influence, collaboration, and professional development [7]. However, all these components are inseparable from the teacher’s experience, dedication, and knowledge, which is created and transferred within reciprocal learning between the teacher and students in a classroom. Thus, teachers consider their students’ learning their primary goal and work within their own classrooms to improve student achievement. This is one of the most important practices of teacher leadership [8]. In recent times, researchers have placed considerable emphasis on the concept of teacher leadership as an attempt to uncover its relationship with student educational development and achievement [1]. However, the existing definitions and descriptions do not disclose the connection between teacher leadership and student learning and therefore remain empirically unsubstantiated. To this end, this research question poses the following questions: “What are the qualitatively different ways teachers experience leadership during their teaching practices and student learning in the classroom? What are the structural relationships between the ways in which teachers experience their leadership in the classroom?” The aim of the study was to develop a set of categories of description derived from the teachers’ conceptions of their leadership in the classroom through learning interactions with students.

2. Literature Review

In a qualitative study, a review of the literature is followed by the empirical results. In the case of this study, the concept of teacher leadership, the essential characteristics of which are presented in the introduction, was the first step in understanding the problem, context, and direction of the empirical research. Meanwhile, the concepts of knowledge transfer, expanding learning capacity, and knowledge creation were derived from the analysis of empirical qualitative data and are described on the basis of evidence from international research (see Section 3.2).

2.1. Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge is a complex entity as it operates both within teachers’ professional activities [9] and in the school setting. However, there are multiple ways of modeling the way it is transferred [10]. Knowledge transfer can be manipulated through the methods of teacher leadership through learning interactions with students within the classroom. Teaching is a knowledge transfer process [9], which is perceived as the movement of knowledge via specific channels from one individual to another—in this case, from teacher to student.

Knowledge transfer between the teacher and students is a reciprocal process. In this context, this means movement of knowledge (subject content, intellectual skills, etc.) from teacher to student and vice versa, through teaching and other media such as workshops, discussions, or project-based work [11]. Teachers adopt teaching patterns to assist students in acquiring knowledge and curriculum content from a variety of aspects, and student learning engagement is improved through knowledge transfer and absorption. In knowledge transfer, teaching style and mode are the determining factors for student capability to obtain knowledge through the learning. The teaching modes such as “teacher-oriented” and “student-oriented” result in student capability to absorb and understand knowledge through learning by internalizing the received information [12].

Some of the key factors which interfere with the efficiency of knowledge transfer are cultural, economic, political, and geographical barriers [13]. It has been recognized in recent years that one of the limiting functions in the appropriate transfer of knowledge is the school culture [14]. Naturally, if a school operates within a very narrow cultural bias, or way of thinking about the world, then that school’s capacity to learn is comparatively limited. In many ways, the school becomes more intelligent by opening itself up to more avenues through which to learn [13], and culture knowledge transfer is then possible on the basis of cooperation, openness, and trust, providing opportunities for teachers, students, and the school community to actively develop new ideas and share knowledge [15]. Knowledge transfer is related to several aspects that need to be considered: (i) the strength of the relationship between the teacher and students, which influences the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer by creating positive attitudes among students toward teachers [16]; (ii) the teacher’s ability to develop a simple structure to deliver complex knowledge to students [17]; (iii) students’ capacity to absorb the knowledge directly related to their learning experience having previously acquired learning skills [18]; (iv) reliability and accuracy of teaching content based on research evidence and focused on suitability for students [19]; (v) the motivation of both teachers and students to learn from each other [17]; (vi) the school context and culture, which are factors that influence the success of knowledge transfer [19].

This knowledge transfer includes the following stages [20]: (i) socialization is the start of tacit or implicit knowledge (an individual’s personal reflections, experiences) transfer by perceiving and sharing life experiences and the capacity for self-learning; (ii) externalization continues through all teaching and learning activities in the classroom by grouping received and accumulated individual information and transforming knowledge from tacit, or implicit, to explicit (objective, demonstrating evidence and substantiated rationally which can be stored in different formats); (iii) combination incorporates the process in which already absorbed and perceived explicit knowledge, which is advanced through teaching and learning to create new explicit knowledge (the so-called knowledge production); (iv) internalization means student capabilities to put into practice what has been learned from explicit knowledge. These stages reveal the meaning and value of the educational interactions between teacher and students through learning that takes place on a reciprocal basis within the classroom. Thus, reciprocal knowledge transfer between teacher and students through learning in the classroom expands their knowledge acquisition opportunities through understanding and application while contributing to the facilitation of the learning process by enabling students to become more actively engaged in the learning by reflecting and sharing new knowledge [21].

2.2. Expanding Learning Capacity

The aim of “expanding the capacity to learn” is related to being an effective learner, enabling students to learn more knowledge more efficiently. A variety of labels are used in describing the “expanding the capacity to learn”—developing learning skills [22], learning to learn [23], developing positive learning dispositions [24].

The notion “expanded learning” describes a variety of activities but no one clear definition or model has emerged [25]. Researchers [26,27] in this field are concerned with how to reengage students in learning at school through excitement, stimulation of their curiosity, and connections to new experiences and knowledge creation. Expanded learning is related to intentional connections between the teacher and students, not only through the content of learning subjects, but through life experiences also [27]. It is about helping students to be academically successful and confident through learning that addresses their academic, social, emotional, and physical needs [25].

The notions “expanded learning” and “extended learning” in research are used interchangeably. The aims of expanded or extended learning are the following [28]: to help all students make progress; to broaden the scope of learning from the lesson; to embed key subject content in long term memory; to reinforce, practice, and develop mastery of key skills; to engage in wider reading and research in preparation for future learning; to allow students to gain and practice the skills and knowledge that they will be required to reproduce in assessment situations such as examinations; to allow students dedicated time to reflect upon learning, correct mistakes, and act on feedback in order to make improvements; to develop learning skills such as independence, self-discipline, time management, and working to deadlines; to encourage students to take pride in their learning.

“Learning capacity” means the physical structure of the brain, including the sum of the neural networks that determine how well you can think (memory, attention, speed of processing, and ability to sequence ideas). There are four key cognitive skills that work together with learning capabilities skills to create learning capacity: attention, processing rate, memory, and sequencing [29].

Teachers build the learning capacity of students through instructional strategies which include establishing a learning community in a classroom, talking to students in order to build trust through the learning interactions, implementing peer feedback and self-reflection, and including students in pedagogical planning [30]. The phrase “expanding learning capacity” refers to any effort being made to improve capabilities, abilities, or skills through learning or for learning [31].

Learning capacity at individual and collective levels involves working with and on beliefs around efficacy, motivation, and emotions; promoting community and connections; stimulating inquiry and creativity; enabling and enhancing practice; and providing time [32]. Collective endeavor and cocreation within the learning through educational interactions between the teacher and students in the classroom are components of creating capacity for learning by involving students and the teacher in genuine collaboration [33].

Hence, the notion of “learning capacity” in this context is interrelated with other notions such as “learning capability” [34]. “Learning capability” can be described as the concepts of managerial practices, mechanisms, and management structures that can be implemented to promote learning [35] in a classroom, at school, or in other environments or contexts. Capabilities for learning are curriculum components that help students develop the knowledge, know-how, and capacity to keep learning in order to meet real-world challenges in a range of situations. This incorporates communicating and working with others, managing intercultural differences and ethical challenges, appreciating perspectives other than their own, and exercising critical thinking and imagination in order to generate novel solutions to new problems, as well as learning how to direct and manage their own learning and to avoid relying solely on mastery of material presented in lessons or texts [36]. These capabilities add particular dimensions of complexity, interrelatedness, simultaneous development of capabilities, and transferability for teaching and learning [35].

2.3. Knowledge Creation

Knowledge creation is a concept of learning that contrasts traditional models of learning and teaching that center on the idea that knowledge can be acquired. Here the shift in thinking underpinning this movement from knowledge acquisition to creation is the core aspect [37]. In contemporary society, the attention is focused on the concept of knowledge management and the learning is related to ideas of student-centeredness and social contexts for learning where learning occurs as a sociocultural system in which students interact and receive scaffolding through the help of the teacher and others. Thus, education needs to be fundamentally refashioned so that students are motivated to create knowledge [38]. Knowledge is not only acquired but can emerge through collective knowledge creation, involving students in sharing their ideas and experiences of different phenomena they encounter [37].

Knowledge creation is a continuous process through which the individual transcends the boundary of the old self by acquiring a new context, new attitudes to the world, and new knowledge [39]. Knowledge creation is achieved through recognition of the synergistic relationship between tacit and explicit knowledge and through the design of social processes that create new knowledge by converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, which is the basis of knowledge creation [40]. Knowledge can be created through conversion from tacit to explicit knowledge [41]. In a classroom, learning is a by-product of the creation of new knowledge, but the focus of classroom work is the continual improvement of ideas [42].

Knowledge creation takes place in four modes when tacit and explicit knowledge interact [40,43]: (i) socialization refers to the social conversion for creating and exchanging tacit knowledge and is used in sharing students’ experience from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge and know-how with other students; (ii) through externalization students seek to rationalize tacit knowledge and articulate it into explicit knowledge (concepts, models); (iii) within the combination students convert explicit knowledge into complex and systematic sets of explicit knowledge by involving students in an exchange of a variety of explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge with each other, and existing information might be integrated to create new knowledge; (iv) in internalization the explicit knowledge is created and shared through students as a learning community and converted into tacit knowledge by individual students.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. The Study

In this research, the phenomenographic research design for identifying conceptions was implemented [44,45] pertaining to teacher leadership. The method examines “qualitatively different ways in which people experience, conceptualise and understand various aspects of, and various phenomena in, the world around them” ([45], p. 31). Phenomenography is based on the assumption that the person does not conceptualize without something being experienced [46,47]. Phenomenography is based on the intentionality of consciousness-based human behaviors, involving a variety of focuses on an awareness of a phenomenon. The intentionality can generate two sources in regard to the qualitative variety within the experience: (i) research participants may experience different parts of a phenomenon; (ii) research participants may experience the same parts, but these may not be grounded in their awareness [48].

The phenomenography presents sources of variations within the authentic analytical framework, which describes the two components of the conscious awareness of an experience, namely referential, related to the meaning of an experience, and structural, related to the structure of that experience [49]. Phenomenography distinguishes between important second- and first-order perspectives: (i) the second-order perspective represents the collective meaning and variations in a phenomenon which is experienced by research participants; (ii) the first-order perspective emphasizes the explication of the general and invariant essence of a phenomenon through research participants [46].

Thus, the aim of using phenomenographic research was to develop a set of categories of description derived from the teachers’ conceptions regarding their leadership in the classroom through learning interactions with students. Each descriptive category represents a distinct feature of the research phenomenon which is experienced by teachers; categories are logically interrelated, and they represent the similarities and differences [50]. These categories constitute a structure, which in phenomenography is termed the “outcome space” that describes the relationships through which it is possible to interpret how the research phenomenon is experienced at an individual and collective level [51].

3.2. The Role of Literature Review in the Study

The literature review in a phenomenographic study should be done after the data collection and analysis. The idea is related to the attitude that researchers should avoid the kind of preconceptions that a literature review would create, and instead they must focus entirely on the data [46]. This means that the phenomenographic methodology follows the approach that theoretical knowledge does not direct the qualitative research process, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation [47,48]. Findings naturally emerge from qualitative data for researchers to analyze in relation to the research questions raised. The specific data processing takes place according to the steps of the phenomenological analysis process [49,50,51] (see Section 3.5).

The literature review in this phenomenographic study was conducted in two rounds: (i) general; (ii) specific, related to emerging concepts/categories of description.

In the first round, the literature review was extensive, including various sources, scientific and nonscientific, in order to understand the depth and breadth of the phenomenon and local and global issues of the research problem, looking for their differences and similarities. However, the literature analysis performed in the first round is not a direction for empirical research. It is needed for researchers to understand the problem and the concepts. The research questions indicate the direction of the research [46,48]. When three concepts (categories of description) emerged from the qualitative data and were finally formed—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge—specific literature was read about them (as the second round of literature review), and a detailed theoretical analysis was performed. A part of the literature review is presented in this article. These concepts (categories of description) are directly related to the research questions, and research questions are answered through these concepts, which represent how teachers conceptualize their leadership as working with students in three stages within the classroom (see Section 2).

The second round of targeted literature review provided opportunities for researchers to identify how empirical findings enrich theoretical considerations, concepts, or both and how theoretical concepts are translated into specific practices of teachers (in this case, teacher leadership within the classroom).

3.3. Participants

Purposive sampling technique was used in order to achieve the rich variation of teacher leadership experiences that are perceived and narrated in phenomenographic interviews. This type of sampling is typical of phenomenographic research [45,51,52,53]. Purposive sampling is the most used form in qualitative research, and it relies on the concept of “saturation”, or the point at which no new information or categories are discovered in data analysis [54]. To maintain sufficient diversity in phenomenographic research, the recommended sample size is 15–20 participants [55].

The research team followed the following principles to maximize the variations among teacher experiences: (a) teachers whose work experience in teaching at school was at least 2 years were selected; (b) research participants represented different school types—primary, secondary, general, gymnasium, educational center, and the professional/vocational school in which the secondary education is an integral part; (c) teachers were recruited from the schools in large and small towns from the five biggest administrative regions of the country; (d) research participants represented different disciplines, had acquired the highest educational level (bachelor, master, doctor), and were both female and male.

Thirty-seven teachers participated in the research project. This number of study participants was capped when data saturation was reached. The average work experience of research participants was 23 years. School type was distributed as follows: primary (7), secondary (7), general (7), gymnasium (7), educational center (5), and professional/vocational school (4). Twenty-three women and 14 men participated. The distribution of participants by highest education level is as follows: bachelors (11), masters (23), doctors (3). Teachers worked in schools in both small (15) and large (22) cities and represented a variety of the country’s regions: A (6), B (7), C (9), D (8), and E (7).

3.4. Data Collection

Data were collected between January and August 2021. Semistructured phenomenographic interviews with open-ended questions were employed to collect the phenomenographic data. A semistructured approach to the interviews allowed the researchers to guide the teachers as research participants to reflect on their experiences with the phenomenon of leadership and ensure clarification and deeper reflection [56].

The goal of a phenomenographic interview was to collect a complete and unbiased account of a participant’s experiences with the phenomenon [48]. The interview allowed the teachers to access their direct experience(s) with the phenomenon of leadership, describe it precisely, and avoid bias by statements from the interviewer [56]. Hence, interviews were structured in this way to build from situated examples, which enabled the teachers to holistically describe their way of experiencing a phenomenon of leadership. These examples allowed the participants to articulate abstracted conceptualizations, or what they understand to be the key features of their way of experiencing the leadership [53].

To develop a rich understanding of the teachers’ perspectives in interviews, researchers gave them the freedom to express their implied ideas and asked first- and second-order questions to explore themes from the responses. In order to determine conceptions of “teacher leadership”, both first- and second-order questions were asked. First-order questions arise within a subject whereas second-order questions are about a subject [56]. Both types of questions involved the interviewee’s personal experiences. The interview was composed of four parts [45,46,47,48,49]:

(i)

Background included the participants’ experiences related to their educational background and professional practices in a classroom. It helped to build rapport with participants and contextualize their experiential responses. These questions were asked as opening interview questions.

(ii)

Experience with phenomenon of leadership was focused on uncovering a thorough account of key encounters the participants have had with the phenomenon of leadership. Participants were asked to describe an experience they have had with the leadership. Researchers asked teachers to describe an experience they have had with their leadership in the classroom. Thus, the phrasing was the following: “Can you describe an experience you have had with your leadership in the classroom?”

(iii)

Conceptual understanding elicited the teachers’ abstract and theoretical understandings of leadership. An example question is as follows: “What experiences do you believe contributed the most to your understanding of your leadership in the classroom?”

(iv)

Summative reflection allowed the teachers to reflect on their experiences of their leadership and clarify, refine, or add to any of their previous responses. Questions stimulated participants to consider if there was anything they wished to mention additionally.

The shortest interview lasted 48 min; the longest, 90 min.

3.5. Data Analysis

In phenomenographic data analysis, a set of principles are followed in order to identify different categories representing variations of research participants’ implied ideas about teacher leadership. The data analysis in phenomenographic research is iterative, focuses on the collective meaning of research participant responses, and provides variations and relations among categories, which represent participant responses [57]. This principle encourages researchers not to make quick decisions on the number of categories arising from the data. Another principle is that analyses should focus on searching for, rather than describing, each individual’s response [51]. Moreover, researchers should avoid merely presenting participant responses without identifying them [58]. There is no singular analytical procedure in phenomenographic research [53,59].

The analysis of the data involved transcription of the interviews verbatim and analysis through a rigorous process according to [45,52,60] with the following four stages: (i) identification—phenomenon-related data were identified; (ii) sorting—identified data were sorted into “pools of meaning” in regard to similarities; (iii) contrasting and categorizing—the “pools of meaning” were contrasted, and categories were generated and described; (iv) reliability checking—data were coded by a team of researchers.

The following steps are performed in phenomenographic data analysis [53,61]:

(a)

All the conducted interviews were transcribed and then all transcripts were read several times in order to develop primary ideas regarding the teachers’ conceptions representing their implied ideas about their leadership through their teaching practices with students within the classroom.

(b)

These primary reflection-based ideas were autonomously highlighted by their similarities and differences by every research team member.

(c)

The research team discussed their primary ideas and distinguished primary categories of description focusing on similarities, differences, and the central meaning of each primary idea.

(d)

The research team finalized the categories of description by using no other evidence except the interview transcripts and bracketing the research team’s own conceptions in relation to the phenomenon of teacher leadership.

(e)

The research team clarified the final outcome by establishing hierarchical relationships within the categories.

3.6. Ethics

Ethical approval for the research study was received from the Board of Ethics of the Vytautas Magnus University (28.12.2020, Protocol No. 5).

Research participant recruitment and decisions to participate in the interview did not involve issues related to social, moral, cultural, and/or political contexts, and there was no reimbursement for teachers’ time and expenses as all the interviews were conducted online. There were no ethical conflicts because the research team allowed freedom of choice regarding participation in the research and free will as regards interview information and reassured teachers that there would be no power impact from the research team as regards participation [62].

The research team ensured that teachers who decided to participate were fully informed about the research and were provided with an informed consent prior sheet which provided information about the main research parameters, the nature of teachers’ recruitment for participation in research, and the assurance of participants’ anonymity and confidentiality [47].

The trustworthiness of this phenomenographic research was established through the attainment of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability.

The research credibility was ensured through three measures: (i) content-related credibility—the research team was both familiar with and understood the topics regarding the research phenomenon (teacher’s leadership), (ii) credibility of method—the study aim aligned with its design and fulfillment, and (iii) communicative credibility—research team members carried out systematic discussions at all stages of the study in order to understand the conceptual and empirical perception and interpretive capacity of each researcher, which made it possible to reach a consensus [63,64].

The phenomenographic research is contextual [45]. Even the same research participants (teachers) express different implied ideas about their leadership in different contexts. In phenomenographic research, reflection on the transferability of the findings is the main characteristic which examines the situational and contextual features that are expressed through the research participants’ experiences [62].

Dependability was ensured by providing evidence that the research process was logical, methodologically recognizable, and transparently documented. The research team was mindful during the interviews, transcription, and development of the descriptional categories [63,64].

Confirmability was implemented by providing the empirically trustworthy findings. This was ensured by reporting the research protocol explicitly and accurately, proving that findings were emerging from the collected qualitative data as the research team documented all the procedures for checking and rechecking the data throughout the research execution period [65].

4. Findings

To answer the research questions, first, here are presented outcomes from the analysis of the teachers’ experiences of their leadership in the classroom in the form of three categories of description. Second, to gain a much deeper insight into the categories of description and the investigated phenomenon, relationships among the categories are presented.

Research Question 1: What are the qualitatively different ways teachers experience leadership during their teaching practices and student learning in the classroom?

Teachers experience leadership during their practices and student learning in the classroom in qualitatively different ways that are conceptualized through teachers’ implied ideas about the phenomenon. Teacher leadership through teaching practices and student learning in the classroom is experienced through three stages, represented by three categories of description—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge (see

Table 1. Categories of description and their content with subcategories.

Category A: Transferring Knowledge	Category B: Expanding Learning Capacity	Category C: Creating Knowledge
Creating emotional discourse	Contextualizing learning	Cocreating learning
Encouraging powerful learning	Adjusting teaching to learning success	Opening up to another and otherness
Trusting and being reliable	Individualizing teaching for meaningful learning	Learning from mistakes by trial and error
		Developing authentic professional knowing

).

4.1. Category A: Transferring Knowledge

Teachers conceptualize (express their implied ideas) about their leadership as knowledge transference through experiencing the emotional discourse they create in a classroom, encouraging students in powerful learning and trust in the school community, and becoming reliable through this process.

4.1.1. Subcategory: Creating Emotional Discourse

Teachers believe that leadership is inseparable from the ability to both listen to and hear students. It is through listening that the teacher forms an emotional relationship with the students and creates an empathetic atmosphere for learning in the classroom.

I spent lots of hours, just listening. Because sometimes the problem is that students are not heard. For me this is the key of leadership. Teachers seek for creativity skills, but they don’t understand that the most creative skill is teacher’s listening of students and teacher’s conversations with students by being focused on students’ emotions. The emotional relationship with students is the key for teacher’s leadership. The teachers can continue utilizing any technique, even boring ones, but if s/he connects it to personal and students’ emotions it will be effective. Emotions of a teacher and students are interconnected through knowledge transfer.

(R4)

Teachers mention that communication which takes the students’ emotional context into account helps to create an emotional discourse in the classroom that is conducive to learning. This discourse includes transference of knowledge and that is a part of teacher leadership.

There is something, not just on the student, that you, your tone of voice, the sights, how you work… It doesn’t reach the same way. Emotional discourse. It is not the same how one the teacher speaks or how different students perceive it, how the teacher’s communication reaches one or other student. In education emotional discourse is important. You can be communicating something, introducing something, and it depends on the channel you use, the way you use it, thus it reaches students. Being emotionally attentive to students is the way for teacher to transfer knowledge and to be a tacit leader.

(R3)

4.1.2. Subcategory: Encouraging Powerful Learning

The experience of teachers reveals that the teacher leader must take responsibility for creativity—the teacher must interest the students and stimulate learning through the unexpected. Students should be surprised by the ingenuity of the teacher, the creativity that helps to master the learning subjects.

The student has to be attracted. Constantly the student has to be stimulated. The student has to feel that what teacher does it is magic. I take the digital blackboard and… I start creating coins, I start taking stuff from the blackboard, and the students are astonished. I say to them: I am a magician. They have to think what you are doing is magic for them. When you explain they have to feel astonished. This is not only teaching and learning, this is knowledge transfer from a teacher to students. For me this is a teacher leadership.

(R7)

Teachers perceive their leadership in terms of creativity, which engages students in joyful learning and that imparts knowledge transfer through many channels.

I consider that my students learn the subject I teach. But I want they would associate me with something fun and I know it will work. I keep their focus on “fun” in the subject. For that, all the activities I prepare, they are different and unexpected for students … Yes, it costs a lot of my time. I always connect my subject to something fun. And it works: students are engaged, interested, attending the classes and their learning achievements are quite high. They are waiting for my classes and they learn the subject with joy. And the knowledge transfer is implicit and explicit. And I am sure this is my leadership.

(R10)

4.1.3. Subcategory: Trusting and Being Reliable

Teachers emphasize that their trust in the school community enables them to exercise leadership both by working with students in the classroom and by working with teachers or the school administration and the school community as a whole.

The relationship with my colleague teachers is based on trust. Trust is like a glue, which provides the possibility to communicate, collaborate, to learn from each other and to transfer knowledge, which are not always obvious. I mean tacit knowledge. Trust in various directions—teachers–teachers, school administration–teachers, teachers–school administration, parents’ trust in teachers and school administration, teachers’ trust in students and vice versa maintains teacher leadership in the school environment.

(R1)

In Category A, teacher leadership is perceived through the practice of knowledge transfer through reciprocal learning; i.e., knowledge transfer takes place in two directions: from teacher to student and vice versa. The main focuses of teacher leadership are related to the creation of emotional discourse through reciprocal learning, encouragement of powerful learning, and the teacher’s trust and reliability-based relationship with the school community. Leadership through teaching is based on conversations with students by learning to listen to what and how something is said by individual students, through personalized teaching, students’ engagement with learning, and the teacher’s innovativeness. Leadership cannot be separated from learning, which encompasses an interconnection of teacher and student emotions through reciprocal learning and engaging students in learning, as well as communication and collaboration with students, colleagues, and school administration. Leadership is related to the following roles: empathetic and reliable professional, attentive listener, knowledge transmitter, and creator (see

Table 2. Categories of description and their components.

	Categories of Description
Components of Categories of Description	Category A	Category B	Category C
Key aspect	Teacher leadership means reciprocal knowledge transfer through reciprocal learning	Teacher leadership means expansion of capacity through teaching and reciprocal learning	Teacher leadership means knowledge creation with students through reciprocal learning
Main focus	Creating emotional discourse through reciprocal learning	Contextualizing student learning through teaching	Learning cocreation between the teacher and students
	Teacher’s encouragement for powerful learning of students	Adjusting teaching to learning success of students	Teacher’s openness to others and otherness
	Recognized teacher’s reliability by a school community	Individualizing teaching for meaningful learning of students	Teacher’s learning through mistakes by trial and error
	Teacher’s trust in the school community		Teacher’s authentic professional knowing
Teaching	Listening to students through conversations	Preparing the context for application of new knowledge	Creating new knowledge by adjusting it to a particular class of students
	Personalizing teaching for perceiving personal and students’ emotions Engaging students in learning Preparing different and unexpected activities for students (innovativeness)	Individualizing the teaching Enhancing and motivating students to learn Changing teaching for meaningful learning of students (innovativeness)	Discovering particularities of (non)effective teaching for students’ learning
Learning	Interconnecting teacher and student emotions for reciprocal learning	Cocreation of learning	Cocreation of learning
	Students’ engagement in learning Teacher’s recognizing different concepts of provided/received information Teachers’ communicating and collaborating (with students, colleague teachers, school administration, school community)	Students’ applying knowledge in practice Teacher’s transferring the knowledge according to curriculum in innovative context Teacher’s individual learning for powerful teaching	Teacher’s learning from and with students, colleague teachers; Teacher’s and students’ learning from mistakes and through trials Teacher’s learning through reflecting for authentic professional knowledge
Teacher’s role	Attentive listener of students	Observer and researcher/experimenter	Observer and researcher/experimenter
	Empathetic professional Knowledge transferrer to students and colleague teachers Creative teacher (creator) Trustworthy/reliable professional	Developer of innovations Evaluator of factors influencing teaching Creative teacher (creator) Professional expert	Discoverer of teaching and learning innovator Knowledge transferrer to students Creative teacher (creator) Professional expert
Teacher’s leadership aims	Creating emotional relationship with students	Understanding the uniqueness of each class, student, and subject	Creating context of serendipity through teaching and learning
	Attracting students to learning Transferring knowledge to students implicitly and explicitly Maintaining trust in the school environment	Helping students to be aware of their learning process and capabilities Contributing to the development of student critical thinking	Learning to open the self and students to unknown Reflecting on mistakes Cooperating with colleague teachers

).

4.2. Category B: Expanding Learning Capacity

Teachers conceptualize (express their implied ideas) about their leadership as expanding learning capacity through contextualizing learning, adjusting teaching to learning success, and individualizing teaching for meaningful learning.

4.2.1. Subcategory: Contextualizing Learning

Teachers see their leadership as a duty to transform the knowledge transferred to students into an understanding of its application in everyday life. Here, the teacher’s innovativeness in creating learning contexts is useful and meaningful. Contextualization of learning leads to an expansion of the learning capacity of both students and teachers.

I am teacher of mathematics. For each session, I prepare not only assignments, but first and foremost a context in which students will be able to apply the new knowledge. Realizing the applicability and usefulness of new knowledge. I believe that it is this kind of learning—applying the necessary knowledge according to the curriculum in an innovative context—that develops students’ awareness that everything they learn in school is important because it is used in life. And I, as a teacher, learn from student learning: I observe, at the same time I develop learning innovations, in order to teach as effectively as possible so that students absorb knowledge and apply it in practice. When students absorb and my innovations work effectively, I don’t consider it an innovation. Consequently, it is an already approved teaching method and is present. That is my attitude. And there is no need for the teacher to prove his leadership. Everything happens through teaching and participating together in student learning, which largely takes place in the classroom. I think it’s a learning cocreation.

(R27)

The teacher’s ability to direct student learning towards diverse reading, integrity, reflection, and sharing new knowledge with each other is an expression of leadership. From interviews it is evident that teaching students to integrate multiple subjects and achieve a common goal becomes not so much a challenge as routine. It requires teacher creativity, perseverance, and time, but it is such teaching that has a positive effect on the meaning of student learning and the joy of discovery as well as on learning outcomes.

We are working with a colleague on a project for students from the last year of study about plants and their use in industry, medicine, pharmacy, household, and so on. We believe the environment we will create will be based on the ideas in the Harry Potter books. Why? This character is known to students, acceptable, attractive. It’s a positive hero worth following and learning from. So each lesson will be their meeting with Harry Potter experiments and deliberations. There will be experiments, discussions, presentations of students in a classroom. Based on this hero, we will learn about animals and wildlife phenomena too. Preparing for such training requires a lot of effort. But the achievement is shared—students read not only science textbooks, they also read other books, not just the adventures of Harry Potter. They learn one important lesson—they have to put a lot of effort into learning and understanding. Read, reflect, discuss with others in order to hear others’ deliberations and learn to draw conclusions. I believe we contribute to the development of students’ critical, scientific thinking. In such my pedagogical work, I see the leadership and meaning of the teacher.

(R21)

4.2.2. Subcategory: Adjusting Teaching to Learning Success

Based on experience, teachers say that adapting teaching so that students are directed towards meaningful learning is evidence of teacher leadership. This can be observed through learning success. In order for teachers to employ this kind of adaption, they need to be intellectually strong and creative, and they need to want to be a part of such learning. This intellectual skill is acquired through both professional experience and personal empowerment to achieve continuous improvement.

Teachers are like carpenters in their studio. They know the piece of wood they want to work with, they know the tools they have and how to use it for different purposes, they know how to swap for every different situation. To be able to adjust in the most efficient way for effective teaching. Teacher has to control the factors, and needs to understand how each factor can affect the outcomes s/he wants to achieve and use the specific information in students’ favor. Adjusting means observing, reflecting, analyzing, acting expeditiously, being ready to change teaching directions for meaningful learning of students. Teachers understand the uniqueness of each class, student, subject, etc. Adjusting is an intellectual skill the teacher develops and improves to approach every context, and learn together with students. This is the way to develop teacher’s expertise and to be the teacher leader.

(R8)

Teachers respond positively to the personalization of teaching, even though there are many students in the classroom. Personalized teaching encourages teachers to learn to innovate.

I had a visually impaired student a few years ago. I had to individualize the training. And because of that, it took a lot of learning—techniques, methods, mastering various IT tools, I even learned Braille. It was all for the success of the student’s learning. And it’s not about dedication here, it’s about professionalism, in which I see teacher leadership. I study each time, both individually and with students. As a result, I get rich intellectually, professionally, and humanly.

(R25)

4.2.3. Subcategory: Individualizing Teaching for Meaningful Learning

Teachers believe that individualized teaching and student learning success are interrelated. An individualized approach to each student makes sense for both teaching and learning. Students then learn meaningfully because they experience their individuality and authenticity supported by the teacher.

I observe development of my students through their learning achievements and the joy they experience while learning. I observe their capacity to learn. Also observe learning difficulties. The main focus is not on teaching and/or learning methodology. The focus is on every individual student. Being a teacher for me is being focused on meaningful learning of students. How I am able to touch their personalities intellectually, morally, socially. Individualized teaching for expansion of students’ learning capacity for me is related to teacher’s leadership.

(R11)

A teacher’s ability to individualize teaching and understand the uniqueness of each student is a hallmark of leadership. Such teaching is adjusted to the student’s capabilities and capacity and encourages the growth of potential through meaningful learning.

Individualizing teaching doesn’t mean helping the students who have learning difficulties. It means individually enhancing and motivating students for meaningful learning. The idea behind individualizing is to create the conditions that strengthen and empower each individual student. To help them to overcome learning weaknesses in order they would achieve their learning aims according to their individual learning capacity. My leadership is realized through helping students to be aware of their learning process and capabilities, and to teach them to direct this learning to their well-being of their lives.

(R28)

Such individualized adjustment of teaching does not only mean maintaining student skills and abilities, it is also related to offering challenges. The teacher leader must find new ways each time to help the individual student to discover potential and experience meaningful learning.

A few years ago, I had a student who was very gifted. All assignments he did quickly. And I have seen that he already needs different tasks in order to focus his learning not on automaticity but on meaningfulness. It’s important. Therefore, we agreed that I would give additional tasks during the settlements, but they would not be for the grade, they would be for his own self-assessment—how he is able to perform more complex tasks at the same time. The first time was not easy for him. He did the task quickly, but it led to errors in the new, atypical task. He was shocked—how was he, so gifted, and made mistakes? But I created the conditions for safe learning—no matter how he performed the additional tasks, he was judged only for the compulsory ones. And a year later, he opened up to reflect on his mistakes, and then new, increasingly difficult tasks went well. And I was happy because I helped the student understand the essence of meaningful learning. For me, it means teacher leadership.

(R15)

In Category B, the key aspect of teacher leadership is expansion of the capacity of both teachers and students through teaching and reciprocal learning. Here the main focus of leadership is on three aspects: (i) contextualizing learning through teaching, (ii) adjusting teaching to learning success, and (iii) individualizing teaching for meaningful learning. The teacher implements leadership through teaching, which is based on individualizing, preparing the context for application of new knowledge, enhancing and motivating students to learn, and innovation. Teacher leadership is interrelated with learning, which is cocreated by teachers and students, meaning that students are able to apply knowledge in practice when teachers transfer curriculum content in an innovative context. Teachers play several roles within the leadership: observer and researcher/experimenter, developer of innovations, evaluator of factors influencing teaching, creator, and professional expert. Leadership aims are perceived as understanding the uniqueness of each class, student, and subject, and assisting students to be aware of their learning process and capabilities and contribute to the development of critical thinking (see Table 2).

4.3. Category C: Creating Knowledge

Teachers perceive leadership as knowledge creating: a reciprocal process when teachers work with students.

4.3.1. Subcategory: Cocreating Learning

Teachers associate their leadership with cocreating learning implemented through interactions between the teacher and colleague teachers, and between the teacher and students. Learning cocreation ensues when teachers work in teams and perform several different roles, and when teachers work with students in a class in which reciprocal construction of learning is implemented through discussing, asking, and questioning.

Teachers’ teamwork is especially important. Each teacher plays different roles in the team, sharing their knowledge and skills. It is in teams that unexpected ideas are born. Serendipity is important—it surprises, encourages reflection, we all learn not to reject, but to think seriously. It is not easy. However, it is not enough for teachers to work in a team and talk. The knowledge we produce while working on the property must be transferred to the classroom for students. Not just transferred. The knowledge output that we, the teachers, create, not only individually but also in teams, must be transferred to the students within the classrooms. And it is for creating new knowledge while the teacher is already working with a particular class of students. And I am sure that knowledge is also created when a teacher works with students. We can call it a cocreation of learning. When teacher and students construct learning by discussing, asking, questioning, etc. This is how the knowledge of a new quality is born. Not copying but creating. It is part of a teacher’s leadership mastery.

(R19)

4.3.2. Subcategory: Opening up to Another and Otherness

Teachers perceive leadership as learning together with students in a process that is mutually developed and results in the creation of new knowledge. For teachers, the pedagogical relationship with students is an expression of their leadership; it is not the teaching techniques that are important here, but the learning of the students. However, for learning to take place for the teacher as well, an openness and recognition that his or her knowledge and knowing is not definitive and that there is still more to learn are necessary.

Being the teacher leader is always being open-minded, to what is happening in your classroom and your school, in your context. The starting points are your personal necessities and the necessities of your students. But also knowing what is working out, the tendencies that exist. Because me, as a teacher, who leads the teaching and is a part of cocreated learning with students can discover that something is not or was not important, evaluate exactly what is effective and what is not primarily in terms of student learning. Learning is at the heart of my pedagogical relationship with students, where we work together to create new knowledge. The path I take to build knowledge with students is the path to learning. I learn from fellow teachers through conversations, discussions, disputes; I’m reading books; I study in formal courses; I follow the lessons of other teachers in my own and other schools.

(R23)

Teachers see their leadership as including learning together with fellow teachers when it comes to collaborating, discussing, arguing, and finding solutions.

For example, when I introduced the books, which I have chosen to read for professional development, a very well-trained colleague of mine, whom I value a lot, criticized various aspects of these books. I did not agree with her totally, but I changed some books to other books, which were proposed by my colleague. Because she provided substantiated arguments. She provided to me some ideas why she didn’t like these books, and I thought she might be right. I was open to her attitudes and opinions and learned from her. It is not easy, but important part of my tacit leadership. I think that through being open to others’ ideas and otherness I am and will be capable to be a part of knowledge creation with students and colleague teachers.

(R16)

4.3.3. Subcategory: Learning from Mistakes by Trial and Error

Teachers cannot imagine their activities functioning without a process of trial and error, learning from this, and creating innovations. For them, these aspects are related to teacher leadership. According to teachers, it is their duty to convince students that mistakes are not disastrous, but a precondition for reflecting and learning and making decisions to achieve the intended goal. Teachers believe that students should not be taught in a culture where mistakes are punished but rather in an atmosphere that helps them to realize that learning is a persistent, systematic, but also challenging and creative process.

<…> no one is perfect. First time you take digital board everything ends up bad. Crooked lines, and all the students laughing. And what happens? The fear to be mistaken. But all of us learn like this. So, you have to do it by being fearless to try new things. When it comes to innovation, for example, using new techniques is always timid. I make mistakes and I am not ashamed to make them. I think being courageous in innovation is important if I want to be a teacher leader. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and learn from mistakes—this is my credo. And I don’t hide from students that I make mistakes because I want to learn. For me, it is a sign of perseverance and courage. Therefore, students know that they will make mistakes, but perseverance and trials in practice will allow them to achieve the desired goal. Learning from mistakes with students creates an atmosphere of trust that allows us to learn from each other. And I am sure that such learning creates an intellectual space in which we build our knowledge of mistakes, learning, confidence in our perseverance.

(R31)

Teachers are convinced that continued learning from mistakes and the implementation of new challenges develops and improves the competencies of learners (both teachers and students). They see their leadership in terms of students realizing that learning happens everywhere and always, and mistakes create opportunities for improvement and correction or change to achieve a quality learning outcome.

It helps you improving your competences, the emotional ones, or the ones that teach you how to act. You learn from everything. From the worse moments, from mistakes. We have to lose the fear to mistake. We have this correct, why change it? Well, sometimes you have to empower yourself and change, and later you will be able to see the results, or not.

(R14)

4.3.4. Subcategory: Developing Authentic Professional Knowing

Teachers perceive their leadership as learning from each other. This requires taking the initiative to speak boldly to other teachers. Learning related to the development of teacher leadership is understood by study participants as an exchange of experiences through participation with colleagues. In their view, learning from colleagues by observing their activities provides opportunities to reflect on their own teaching, and not to copy good practice or criticize colleagues, but to develop their own authentic teaching innovations that are tailored to the specific class or students. So, teachers experience their leadership by creating authentic professional knowledge and understanding.

Each year, I ask teachers from my own and other schools to allow me to learn from them. I do this by participating in the lessons they lead, observing, reflecting on my pedagogical activities, and rethinking what I do well and what I still have to learn. My observation is not intended to criticize colleagues, but to learn from them. It is interesting that I develop my authentic knowledge and knowing about my teaching and working with students. I am not taking over other practices or knowledge but creating my own. It gives me professional joy and strength. This kind of my learning provides opportunities to self-assess my professionalism and to pinpoint the directions of professional development. I focus my reflection on my professional limitations and strengths. This approach allows me to focus on my professional growth but not on the professional gaps of my colleagues. As a result, my relationship with colleagues is respectful. I never experienced their “no” to my desire to learn from their experiences. Fellow teachers contribute, say, semidirectly to my unspoken professional leadership and learning to build authentic professional knowledge.

(R22)

In Category C the key aspect of teacher leadership is knowledge creation, which is implemented through reciprocal learning, i.e., from both sides—teachers and students. Teacher leadership in this category focuses on learning cocreation, which is possible only through educational interactions between the teacher and students, and on the teacher, who learns continuously to be open, learn from mistakes, and create professional knowing. Leadership while teaching incorporates discovery of (non)effective particularities and knowledge creation through adjustment to a particular class. Learning within teacher leadership is (i) reciprocal learning through learning cocreation between the teacher and students, and both teachers and students learning from mistakes and through trials; (ii) individual teachers learning from and with students, as well as learning from colleagues and through reflection in the pursuit of authentic professional knowledge. The teacher as a leader through knowledge creation performs the following roles: observer and researcher, discoverer of teaching and learning innovator, constructor of learning with students, knowledge transferrer to students, creative teacher (creator), professional expert, and part of a teaching team at school. Leadership aims through knowledge creating are directed to serendipity through teaching and learning, learning to open the self and students to the unknown, reflecting on mistakes, and cooperating with colleague teachers (see Table 2).

Research Question 2: “What are the structural relationships between the ways in which teachers experience their leadership in the classroom?”

The structural relationships between the ways in which teachers experience their leadership in the classroom are expressed through particular structural components. Referential and structural components show qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience their leadership in the classroom. These components are part of the content of specific categories of description. The particular categories of description are distinctive or overlapping. The components create prerequisites for the formation of hierarchical relationships between categories.

4.4. Hierarchical Relationship among the Categories of Description

Categories of description in this phenomenographic study have logical relationships with one another. These relationships constitute a structural hierarchy of inclusiveness which means the increasing integrity or cohesion from the lowest to the highest category of description. The relationships between the three categories were established based on the key aspects (see Table 2) that formed each category; the referential (“what” of teacher leadership) and structural (“how” of teacher leadership) components were established by highlighting distinct and overlapping components (see

Table 3. Referential and structural components of categories of description.

	Structural (“How” of Teacher Leadership) Components
Referential (“What” of Teacher Leadership) Components	Distinct	Overlapping
Reciprocal knowledge transfer		A, B, C
Reciprocal learning		A, B, C
Expansion of capacity through teaching	B
Reciprocal knowledge creation	C
Emotional discourse creation/emotional relationship	A
Encouragement/engagement for powerful learning		A, B
Recognition of teacher’s reliability	A
Teacher’s trust in the school community	A
Teaching personalization/individualization		A, B
Teaching innovations		A, B, C
Communication	A
Collaboration cooperation		A, C
Learning contextualization	B
Teacher’s individual learning	B
Learning from mistakes	C
Openness to others and otherness	C
Development of authentic professional knowledge	C
Creativeness		A, B, C
Professional expertise		B, C
Learning cocreation		B, C

).

Hierarchical relationships between categories are not linear. They can be seen in the structure of the steps, but category B is the connection between categories A and C. There is a back-and-forth movement between categories A and B and B and C, in both directions. This means that category B—expanding learning capacity—is directly affected by category A (knowledge transferring), and at the same time category B affects category C (knowledge creation). These two-step cycles can be interpreted as follows: (i) new knowledge expands learning capacity and expanded learning capacity requires new knowledge transfer; (ii) expanded learning capacity stimulates knowledge creation and the newly created new knowledge expands new learning capacity (see Figure 1).

All three categories are distinct because of their specific components, which are not overlapping (see Table 3):

(a)

Category A—transferring knowledge—with emotional discourse creation/emotional relationship, recognition of teacher’s reliability, teacher’s trust in school community.

(b)

Category B—expanding learning capacity—with expansion of learning capacity through teaching, learning contextualization, teacher’s individual learning, communication.

(c)

Category C—creating knowledge—with reciprocal knowledge creation, learning from mistakes, openness to others and otherness, development of authentic professional knowledge.

Categories A and B are connected through encouragement/engagement for powerful learning and teaching personalization/individualization (see Table 3 and Figure 1).

Categories B and C are related through professional expertise and learning cocreation. Categories A, B, and C are related through reciprocal knowledge transfer, reciprocal learning, teaching innovations, and creativeness (see Table 3 and Figure 1).

5. Discussion

The research findings proved that the essence of teacher leadership is the capacity to implement student learning through knowledge transfer, expansion of learning capacity, and knowledge creation as the sequential process of three stages. The idea of knowledge transfer coincides with the idea of expanding learning capacity [5], which is the second stage of teacher leadership carried out within the learning in a classroom. However, the authors studying leadership do not mention teacher leadership as a multistage coherent process in which knowledge sharing and development are linked to the building and expansion of learning capacity. In our research, the latter is affected by the knowledge transfer that takes place in the process of mutual learning between teacher and students, and this empirically based evidence is not mentioned in other literature around the subject. According to some researchers in the field, expanding or extending the learning potential is not the result of teacher leadership [5,6]. However, our research suggests that teacher leadership is closely interconnected to learners’ active participation in the learning process, which is inseparable from students’ engagement in learning. Therefore, teachers stimulate students intellectually through knowledge transfer and through the development of learning potential. Our study demonstrates the ability of students to generate new knowledge during learning by collaborating with the teacher and other students in the classroom. Subsequently, the three-stage process reflects the impact on the dynamic development of student learning. Such empirically based ideas do not contradict the findings of those previous studies which state that teacher’s leadership is related to the development of students [3,4] by sharing practice, initiating changes through cooperation with students [4], and expanding learning capacity.

Research findings proved that teachers perceive their leadership through learning interactions with students in a classroom in three sequential steps—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge. Such a finding is somewhat different from those of researchers [9,11,12,20,21] who associate teacher leadership with the following sequence: sharing (receiving and giving) knowledge with responsibility, building knowledge, and providing opportunities for learning capacity. Thus, the first step—the transfer or sharing of knowledge—is universal in teacher leadership through learning interactions with students in a classroom.

In our research, teachers emphasized that for successful leadership through knowledge transfer, they need to create emotional relationships with students, must interest them and stimulate their learning, and need to experience mutual trust between the schoolteacher and the teacher’s school—all of which create the conditions for the teacher’s self-confidence. Such a provision differs from the scientific literature on knowledge transfer issues when teaching methods, styles, or modes are seen as a core factor [5,11]. Thus, the results of this research expand the already existing technical dimension of knowledge transfer by the incorporation of socioemotional and moral dimensions.

From the research findings emerged the meaning of expanding student learning capacity within the teacher leadership through contextualizing the learning of students, adjusting teaching for student learning success, and individualizing teaching for meaningful learning in a classroom. Such findings indicate that teacher leadership in the classroom is related to teaching which is focused on student learning (is student-centered), which within the concept of expanding learning capacity means cooperation between the teacher and students at an individual level as the teacher seeks to individualize teaching for every student’s learning success [33]. Thus, students experience themselves as individual and authentic personalities who are strengthened by the teacher [35].

The research findings revealed that teacher leadership relates to knowledge creation through cocreating learning between the teacher and students, being open to each other and otherness, and developing the teacher’s authentic professional knowledge within the learning. So, educational interactions between the teacher and students, and among students themselves, add value to knowledge creation within the learning in a classroom. These findings support the research of Choi and Lee [40], who state that knowledge creation is achieved through recognition of the synergistic relationship and through the social processes that create new knowledge.

Research outcomes highlighted that teachers learn from students and fellow teachers by creating authentic professional knowledge as a part of teacher leadership. This confirms the statement by Darling [37] that knowledge emerges through collective knowledge creation.

Strengths, Challenges, and Issues of the Study

There is potential strength for phenomenographic research to highlight new research issues for empirical research as well as academic and professional debates in teacher leadership, particularly in the context of teacher professional community seeking the phenomenon from their different teaching disciplines and amongst different stakeholders. These research studies and debates would contribute to a more diverse understanding of teacher leadership and to expanding the approach of this phenomenon from different roles and different levels of involvement in teaching, learning, participation, management, and administration processes in a classroom, school community, and beyond. Phenomenographic research can capture such aspects.

The challenging processes in phenomenographic study are the following: time-consuming, labor-intensive analysis and interpretation of qualitative data; work that requires a lot of care and objective retreat in data analysis, when descriptive categories are specified and differences are identified; time-consuming careful work with a purposive literature review, which is complicated because it directly relates to concepts that emerge from empirical data and these are unknown to researchers in advance. This means that in phenomenographic study, researchers are in a process of continuous learning, where the development of a knowledge thesaurus in relation to a specific research phenomenon is one of the strengths.

Research aimed at investigating conceptions, and interviews were the access to teachers’ conceptions. However, the reliance on contextual interviews by seeking to provide precise and accurate accounts about the self has limitations [51]. Here arises the assumption of congruence among utterances in interview data and conceptions (as research object) where utterances are analyzed and later reported as conceptions (findings). Phenomenographic studies have not justified a valid link among these elements [44]. To alleviate this problem, research participants at the time of interviews were encouraged to reflect on the intended meaning of the expression that has been made [59].

The task of objectivity for researchers in the phenomenographic study was a challenge and a strength at the same time. It was a challenge because researchers were engaged and interacted with research participants in the research process; researchers were not “free” and “independent” of the phenomenon under study, i.e., teacher leadership; and the judgment by researchers was required in every step of the research process, especially in the qualitative data interpretation [47]. The strength of objectivity was that a team of researchers took interviews, transcribed the data, analyzed it, and performed all the steps in a coordinated manner, discussing limitations and strengths after each interview. In the analysis phase, all researchers analyzed the interview texts and shared the results obtained during the online sessions, comparing them and reaching a consensus on each category and its content. Through reflection researchers identified and recognized their preconceptions that were being brought in the research study in each step of the research process. Throughout the research process, the researchers kept notes that allowed each team member to discuss in a purposeful, meaningful way during each online meeting, as the recorded experiences, thoughts, ideas, and concepts ensured objectivity and details.

6. Conclusions

Teachers conceptualize their leadership in the classroom when working with students as a coherent process that consists of knowledge transfer, expansion of learning potential, and knowledge creation. All these stages are linked by teacher–student learning, teaching for the sake of successful and meaningful learning of students within the classroom. Each stage includes specific authentic content detailing the components that facilitate their implementation while the teacher interacts with students. The connections between the stages demonstrate the need for teacher–student collaboration, teaching personalization, professional expertise, and learning cocreation.

The outcome of this phenomenographic study presents and explains the structure of the leadership, based exclusively on the perceptions of teachers who experience it in various ways. The results of this study contribute to the expansion of the concept of teacher leadership in the classroom as not only an influence through expertise by applying specific teaching methods, but as a coherent process from knowledge transfer to its creation through reciprocal teacher–student learning in the classroom. Thus, the success of teacher leadership in the classroom is related to the “motion” of knowledge, facilitated by collaboration with students based on “teaching for the learning of the students” where it is not teaching methods that are important, but forms and methods of teacher–student cooperation focused on learning.

The phenomenographic methodology enables further conceptualization, mappings, discussions, and debates identifying, specifying, describing, and relating the variety of ways by which teacher leadership is experienced structurally and processually. Methodological elements (phenomenographic interview, second-order perspective, conceptions of teacher leadership, hierarchy, abductive theorization about the emerging concepts) form, altogether, an alternative theoretical approach to the teacher leadership practices within the classroom through educational interactions with students.

Phenomenographic studies on the issue of teacher leadership are significant because they empirically underpin the factual, conceptual, empirical, and processual aspects of this research phenomenon. In the literature and through the lens of quantitative research, meanwhile, teacher leadership is presented as a nearly standardized, competency-based phenomenon rather than an experientially authentic phenomenon. Thus, the phenomenographic methodology gives researchers and practitioners a chance to expand, specify, and evaluate the understanding of teacher leadership, and to change the typical approach to it by seeing this phenomenon through the prism of educational science and teachers’ daily practices realistically and contextually. Phenomenographic research can be instrumental in providing a more realistic worldview of individual differing experiences regarding teacher leadership phenomena.

In the future, research on teacher leadership can be focused on teachers’ conceptualizations of their experiences regarding links between teacher leadership and student achievements, teacher leadership effectiveness, and the need for support for teacher leadership in their schools to strengthen teacher empowerment and teaching effectiveness, and teacher leadership beyond the classroom for facilitating the spread of effective teaching practices.