ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on issues related to student engagement and on the significant role that teacher leadership plays in enhancing this engagement. The chapter argues that much of school-based learning is viewed by students as being of questionable relevance with respect to its application in the real world, with relevance being limited mainly to its accreditation value. In-school participation would also need to include aspects of socialization and social interactions. Researchers use the term 'engagement' to refer to the extent to which students identify with, and value, outcomes of their schooling, and participate in academic and non-academic school activities, with most models tending to see the concept of engagement in terms of attitudes and behaviors that are vested in the student. Jeremy Finn (1989) presented a participation/identification model of student engagement with two central components, participation and identification, which has subsequently dominated the research landscape.
