This qualitative study used ethnographic and historical approaches to examine teacher leadership in both an enabling and an inchoate culture. The purpose of this study was to discover what factors contributed to or inhibited the sustainability of teacher leadership. Using original documentation from earlier studies that report on eight years of a middle school's reculturing and restructuring experiences, we describe a model for linking leadership and learning and identify components of an enabling culture for teacher leadership: learning, valuing, nurturing, supporting, sharing, and coaching. We describe the development of a learning culture, 5 teachers’ identification with a democratic teacher leadership style, and the sustainability of these leader identities in an inchoate school culture.
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