Discussions of teacher participation in the reform literature do not take into account the different meanings of the term, teacher participation. This paper uses a critical perspective to review the main approaches to teacher participation; to bring to light issues these approaches fail to address; and to offer alternatives. It is argued that calls for teacher empowerment and involvement have been framed almost exclusively in terms that advance management and administrative agendas for reform. For urban schools, the emphasis on teacher involvement belongs to a "second wave" of educational reform that comes on the heels of the basic skills era. The approaches reviewed include bureaucratic management, transformational and shared leadership, and team and community building. The latter approaches are an improvement over bureaucratic management, but they must take three problems into account: (1) how to maintain reforms undertaken by "transformational" leaders; (2) how to ensure that "participation" does not sanction dominant interests over silenced ones (including those of urban communities); and (3) how to address lack of participation at the systemic level. Insights from the literature on worker/democratic/humanistic participation are woven into concluding recommendations. (Contains 45 references.) (Author/LL)