5 Stages on the Path to Equity: Framework Challenges Urban Teachers' Deficit Thinking

Teachers are leaders when they function in professional learning communities to affect student learning, contribute to school improvement, inspire excellence in practice, and empower stakeholders to participate in educational improvement. From an equity perspective, teachers also lead when they serve as change agents who collaborate to use equity-based approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners and to build on the strengths of their colleagues. In both definitions, teacher leadership is inseparable from empowerment as teachers need to be empowered to lead and supported to sustain their efforts. The five-stage empowerment trajectory is a framework for sustaining teacher leadership development programs. Researchers developed the framework as a result of a study focused on the ways in which teacher leaders in the Urban Teacher Leadership Academy collaborated to recognize and challenge deficit thinking, and the influence they had on their colleagues' thinking. This article discusses the five stages: (1) enabling; (2) exploring; (3) evolving; (4) engaging others; and (5) energizing others.