The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine principals' perceptions with respect to teacher leadership and the opportunities or barriers to leadership roles that teachers encounter within a school. Understanding the perspectives of principals with respect to teacher leadership and the opportunities or barriers to leadership could help to start the dialogue between principals and teachers toward improved opportunities for teachers to take on leadership roles. The study identified ways in which principals foster and sustain teacher leadership. The study included the perspectives of 15 out of 53 elementary school principals in Cumberland County, North Carolina on the ways they define, support, and foster teacher leadership in their schools. Principals responded to the Principal Leadership Questionnaire (PLQ), an 18-question Likert-scale assessment, and qualitative data were collected and analyzed from interviews with 15 principals concerning their perspectives of teacher leadership at the participating sites. Distributing leadership and sharing leadership were the main themes that emerged from the PLQ. The qualitative findings of this study indicated: (a) principals perceive there to be various and numerous roles in which teacher leaders can be involved; (b) principals' perception on the barriers related to teachers taking on leadership roles indicate that those barriers are related to personal initiative of teachers; and (c) principals engage in various methods to facilitate teacher leadership but the most productive method is to identify and then capitalize on individual strengths of teachers. Based on the results from the research, principals should better define the role of teacher leadership and they should refer to their teachers as teacher leaders regularly so that teacher leaders and other view themselves in leadership roles. Recommendations for future research are to interview a principal and then several of the staff members at a school to better understand how principals and teachers can improve leadership opportunities and understand where the disconnect occurs. In addition, because this research was conducted at the K-5 elementary setting, it is recommended that future research include both principals and teachers in grades 6-12 to expand the scope of leadership where opportunities are more varied. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]