The Teacher as Self-Leader: Building Missional Competence in Christian Public School Teachers

This paper applies Manz’s definition of self-leadership to Christian public school teachers who desire to leverage their Christian witness in their classrooms. The historic difficulties between the Church and public education in America are discussed to prove why public education is a challenging place for Christian teachers to be faithful. Then, using original research, the author shows how Christian public school teachers are currently leveraging their Christian witness. The original research found that younger teachers are exhibiting these missional behaviors less than their older colleagues. To build missional competence earlier in teachers, the author proposes that self-leadership, in conjunction with a robust gospel understanding, can help build these missional competencies in younger teachers earlier in their careers.