Trained for isolation: The impact of departmental cultures on student teachers' views and practices of collaboration

Today, isolated practice is regarded by most educators, administrators and policymakers as an inadequate way of performing teachers' work. Most teachers and teacher educators embrace the current dominant discourse on the virtues of teacher collaboration, but these beliefs do not always materialize in the way programs of initial teacher education are organized and in the way student teachers experience their practice training. This paper examines this contradiction by analyzing the network structure and contents of teachers' professional interactions with student teachers and among themselves in two secondary-school English departments. The data show that despite the formal arrangements and the discourses favoring collaborative practice, the student teachers within the two departments were socialized into professional cultures that framed their views of themselves and of teaching in essentially isolated ways. The paper discusses implications of these results for studies of collaborative cultures in teaching and for the training of beginning teachers.     

Chasing joint work: administrators’ efforts to structure teacher collaboration

ABSTRACT

Although the benefits of teacher collaboration have been touted, school administrators often struggle to foster productive collaboration at their sites. This study takes a deep dive into teachers’ interactions to understand how administrators’ efforts to engineer collaboration play out in teachers’ relationships. Analysis of qualitative interview and observation data with a social network lens provides a nuanced understanding of teachers’ formal and informal interactions at two schools. Findings make clear why leaders are unlikely to build effective collaborative cultures without noticing and building off of the relationships teachers have built within their existing contexts. Overly regulated meetings impacted both formal and informal relationships between teachers, and productive collaboration during formal meeting time could not be sustained in teachers’ informal networks when other structural obstacles intervened. Few teachers were able to overcome either of these constraints to engage in meaningful collaboration, although the efforts of some provide insight for promoting collaborative cultures. This study provides insights for how leaders might notice and capitalise on existing relationships as well as on sometimes unintended structures to support teachers’ join work.     

Transformational Leadership: How Principals Can Help Reform School Cultures

ABSTRACT

Collaborative school cultures have been associated with the achievement of a number of school reform objectives for both teachers and students. Little is known, however, about how such cultures develop and whether or how school administrators can facilitate that process. This study examined the practices of administrators in each of 12 schools which had developed highly collaborative professional relationships over a three year period in the context of school improvement initiatives. Results suggest the feasibility of developing more collaborative school cultures in a relatively brief period of time and clarify the role played by the larger context of school improvement for fostering collaboration. Specific strategies used by the administrators are described. These strategies are associated with a concept of leadership termed “transformational”.     

Extending classrooms through teacher collaboration in Virtual Learning Environments

ABSTRACT

This paper explores arrangements and conditions enabling and constraining teacher collaboration to extend classrooms through Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). It draws implications from a participatory action research project in three small, rural Finnish schools funded by the European Social Fund (2015–2017). Data were mainly collected through discussions and interviews with five teachers. The theory of practice architectures serves as a theoretical and analytical framework. The collaboration challenged and enabled cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements on three levels. On a classroom level, the VLE enabled new teaching practices (e.g., student collaboration, formative assessment). However, a lack of digital competence among teachers and students hindered the cross-classroom collaboration. On a school level, the school leaders enabled or constrained the arrangements depending on the provided support or lack thereof (e.g., schedules, faculty involvement). On a regional level, the infrastructure (e.g., transportation) for collaboration would require arrangements developed in dialogue with the schools (e.g., digital systems). The paper concludes that changing teaching practices in relation to VLEs requires slowly evolving previous and new architectures simultaneously on all three levels.     

Experience of Induction in One Local Education Authority

From September 1999 the UK government's arrangements for induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) would be supported formally by experienced colleagues throughout their first year in teaching. The competence and progress of new teachers was to be monitored, supported and assessed against induction standards, with reports being prepared and sent to the Local Education Authority (LEA) at three points during the year. Should an NQT fail to meet the expectations described in the induction standards at the end of their first year then these new colleagues would be unable to continue teaching. The Teacher Training Agency, following details supplied by the DfEE, offered guidance on the ways in which this process should be carried through. This article examines the support provided by experienced teachers in one local authority to consider if it offers an initiation into the teaching profession, a socialisation into the current practices of particular schools or a check on basic classroom competence. It raises issues about the current focus on the practicalities of teaching and suggests new recruits may need a more robust induction to their professional role.     

Underwhelmed and playing it safe: newly qualified primary teachers’ mentoring and probationary-related experiences during induction

Framed within the burgeoning policy and research literature on teacher induction internationally, this paper focuses on the mentoring and probationary-related experiences of nine newly qualified primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland, during the course of their initial year of workplace practice, post-graduation. Gleaning newly qualified teachers’ (NQTs’) perspectives on these matters is opportune, as the Teaching Council’s new model of induction entitled Droichead (bridge in Irish) is envisaged to become the sole induction and probation route for all NQTs. Transacted during the 2010/2011 school year, when the induction and probationary arrangements in place were those that the Droichead initiative is intended to replace, a three-cycle, individual interview design facilitated continuing contact with each NQT. Selected, representative interview data are utilised to illustrate the dynamics of NQTs’ experiences of mentoring and probationary-related processes. Empirically based findings establish, firstly, beginner complicity in the transaction of narrowly conceived mentoring support; secondly, enamorment of the reifications of initial teacher education-phase teaching practice when negotiating probationary processes; thirdly, the valuing of techniques that respond to immediate, probationary-related requirements over more complex forms of practice; and fourthly, the inevitable and essential interconnectedness of mentoring and probationary processes. The paper concludes with implications for the design and implementation of induction programmes.     

Features of an Emerging Practice and Professional Development in a Science Teacher Team Collaboration with a Researcher Team

This study concerns teaching and learning development in science through collaboration between science teachers and researchers. At the core was the ambition to integrate research outcomes of science education—here ‘didactic models’—with teaching practice, aligned with professional development. The phase where the collaboration moves from initial establishment towards a stable practice is investigated. The study aims to identifying features of formation and exploring consequences for the character of contact between research and teaching. Specific questions are “What may be identified as actions and arrangements impacting the quality and continuation of the emerging practice?” and “What and in what ways may support teacher growth?” The analysis draws on practice architectures as a theoretical framework and specifically investigates the initial meetings as a practice-node for a new practice, empirically drawing on documented reflections on science teaching, primarily from meetings and communication. The results take the form of an analytical-narrative account of meetings that focused planning, enactment and reflection on teaching regarding the human body. We identify enabling actions such as collaborative work with concrete material from the classroom and arrangements such as the regular meetings and that the collaborative group had a core of shared competence—in science teaching and learning. Constraining were actions such as introducing research results with weak connection to practical action in the school practice and arrangements such as differences between school and university practice architectures and the general ‘oppression’ of teachers’ classroom practice. The discussion includes reflections on researchers’ roles and on a research and practice base for school development.     

Helping Teachers Support Pupils with Mental Health Problems Through Inter-professional Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of Teachers and School Principals

ABSTRACT

A qualitative study conducted in four lower secondary schools in Norway explored teachers’ and school principals’ experiences of collaboration with a variety of extended services (ES). Particular attention was directed to the ways (if any) they perceived collaboration to be relevant to helping teachers support pupils with mental health problems through their everyday social and pedagogic practices. Findings of the study indicated that teachers valued initiatives that could help develop mutual understandings of teachers’ and ES professionals’ roles and responsibilities. Initiatives to build inter-professional relationships were perceived as laying the foundation for more productive collaboration. However, to be able to provide coherent, sustained support in the classroom, teachers needed guidance from ES professionals. This required a shift in collaborative processes away from a focus on individualized pupil support towards helping teachers support pupils through their classroom-based social and pedagogical practices. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Teacher collaboration: 30 years of research on its nature,forms, limitations and effects

ABSTRACT

This article reprises and reflects on 30 years of the author’s work on teacher collaboration. The distinctive nature of this work has not been in making a case for teacher collaboration in terms of its benefits for students, teachers, or educational change. These arguments are widely available elsewhere. Rather it has examined ways of collaborating that are available to teachers, how formal or informal collaboration should be, how collaborative efforts can be misused or misdirected, and what factors must be considered when deliberately designing teacher collaboration so it will have the most beneficial effects. The article discusses the explanatory and strategic power of three concepts in particular—contrived collegiality, professional capital, and collaborative professionalism. Conclusions are drawn about next steps for educational research in terms of establishing clear typologies of teacher collaboration in relation to their impact and appropriateness in different circumstances.     

Facilitating Newly Qualified Teachers' Growth as Collaborative Practitioners

A support group for newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was set up to facilitate collaborative practice and explore professional knowledge. The support group was monitored for a year and analyses found that a cooperative, rather than collaborative, group formed. Similarly, the NQTs (with one exception) experienced and enacted cooperation in their schools, which limited their opportunities to learn with teaching colleagues or to be recognised publicly as competent professionals. By the end of the year, most NQTs articulated knowledge of work practices that privileged isolation, privacy and individualism.     

Multilingual primary classrooms: an investigation of first year teachers’ learning and responsive teaching

This article draws on the analysis of 26 interviews with newly qualified primary teachers (NQTs) in one multilingual city in England, towards the end of their induction year. Interview analysis focused on three themes: developments in pedagogic practice, collaboration with colleagues, resolutions for change or development. Detailed thematic analysis confirmed that NQTs were engaged in reflection about how to respond to diversity, in some cases building on awareness raised in teacher education. Learning on the job was a frequent theme but five respondents still expressed lack of confidence about their approaches. Twenty-one NQTs believed that they had begun to develop responsive forms of teaching, aided by support from and collaboration with other colleagues, including teaching assistants, many bilingual. Implications of the study are that both teacher education and educational research programmes need to give further time to the study and development of linguistically responsive forms of teaching.     

Eminent classroom teachers join the dialogue on teacher education programs

Abstract

This article examines the views on effective teacher education programs held by 10 teachers who were identified by senior administrators within their school districts as exemplary teachers. The findings reveal many consistencies between the beliefs inherent within five models of teacher learning that predominate in literature on teacher education programs and those held by practicing teachers. The one major difference is that teachers in this study emphasize the transmission of a widely accepted body of pedagogical knowledge and skills to a greater degree than do researchers. This set of common belief provides a strong foundation for building collaborative relationships through which both cultures might work together to develop a shared vision. Transformation of teaching and teacher education practice requires a willingness to consider values and perspectives that might differ from those accepted within either culture and an openness to change on the part of both cultures.     

Toward a research and development agenda for successful schooling practices

Currently in the UK there is much pressure to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority teachers, not only to respond to the continuing shortage, but to develop a teaching force that reflects the diversity in the UK population and provides role models for ethnic minority students. There is, however, little research on how ethnic minority teachers cope with the demands of the profession, especially in their first year. The introduction by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) of an induction period for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in 1999 was an attempt to create a programme of individual support and monitoring to provide NQTs with a bridge from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to becoming established in their chosen profession. We believe it is now timely and important to examine how ethnic minority beginning teachers experience these new arrangements. In this paper we, therefore, explore the induction experiences of British teachers of Asian and African Caribbean origin in three Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the North West of England. We conclude that the NQTs are being provided with equal opportunities by their employers and that affirmative action may have been undertaken by a few of these employers during the recruitment and selection process, although some anecdotal evidence is also presented of discrimination. Further, the paper suggests that the majority of the NQTs find their schools and LEAs supportive and the induction process valuable, although it highlights the need for additional support in some individual cases.     

Towards a model of interprofessional preparation to enhance partnering between educators and families

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) involves cross disciplinary learning, teaching, and supervision to foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration. In the field of medicine, this training approach has been adopted to improve collaboration amongst health care professionals. Rarely has this approach been adopted in regard to the preparation of student teachers. Yet professionals from the disciplines of general and special education, school social work, and school psychology often must work together and with families and pupils. A rationale will be forwarded for offering IPE to graduate students in these fields before they graduate. A multi departmental project was undertaken to design a new IPE training programme to foster collaborative knowledge of, dispositions towards, and skills in family school partnering. The components of the programme, the proposed criteria to gauge the success an initial pilot of the programme, and challenges faced in setting up such cross-discipline training will be described with lessons learned for the future.     

Interactive TV as an option in early childhood teacher education

Abstract

The qualitative study examined the processes and approaches to collaboration, reflection, and dialogue of preservice and mentoring teachers who were engaged in a yearlong internship experience. Within the context of a university course grounded in constructivism, social constructivism, and the concept of teacher as researcher, the study explored the social interactions of the teachers throughout the course of the school day. Teachers were observed in the process of planning and reflecting on daily classroom activities through collaborative meetings with a focus on the teaching and learning process. The preservice teachers were educated in the use of the main principles described by the Reggio Emilia Approach ‐ collaboration reflection, and dialogue (Edwards, Gandini &; Forman, 1998) and thus, served as a guide for the collaborative interactions with the mentoring teachers.     

Performance Management for Teachers: Headteachers' perspectives

For the first time, the performance of teachers in England and Wales is being directly linked to their pay. This article traces the introduction and implementation of one strand of the UK government's performance-related pay strategy, Performance Management, from the perspective of 12 primary and secondary headteachers of schools located in three different regions of England. The empirical data gathered by the Teachers' Incentive Pay Project team, based at the University of Exeter, suggested while heads may not be against performance-related pay in principle, its practical application is seen as fraught with difficulties. The lack of guidance and clarification regarding funding arrangements, the absence of nationally agreed criteria for judging whether post-Threshold teachers should progress up the upper pay scale, and the potential divisiveness, if it is not effectively implemented, of the scheme in a culture that depends on co-operation and collaboration, meant that heads were anticipating the implementation of the link between pay and performance with some trepidation.     

Tensions and complexities in school-university collaboration

This study, conducted over a one-year period, examined the collaboration practices in a large-scale school-university capacity-building collaborative action research project that was designed to help English language teachers develop the skills needed to deal with the reforms to assessment practices in Hong Kong's school curriculum. The study theorized collaboration as a complex construction that must be understood in the context of the prevailing ideologies shaping professional development practices for teachers. Online data generated from the collaborative action research project were analysed to explore the discursive construction of interpersonal relationships. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine the discursive strategies that were used in the emails of two university researchers and two school teachers to negotiate and manage collaboration practices. It examined the complexities of negotiating collaboration as a social practice in institutional cultures in a non-Western sociocultural setting. The implications of the findings for policy, professional development and future research are discussed.     

Self-Study Enabling Understanding of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: An Exploration of Collaboration among Teacher Educators for Special and Inclusive Education

ABSTRACT

While teaching is increasingly being accepted as a discipline, there is a growing emphasis on teacher educators researching their own practice to advance the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). This study sought to explore the extent to which self-study contributes to teacher educators’ understanding of the SoTL within the discipline of teaching. While self-study is generally accepted as a scholarly approach, the aim here is to address the call in the literature for self-study researchers to evince a commitment to a practice-based and theory-building research agenda by linking with public theories, in this case the SoTL. Additionally, given that self-study is collaborative in nature, findings here may help to address the dearth of knowledge reported in the literature about teacher educator collaboration. A self-study approach was adopted to explore a journey of two teacher educators as they designed, implemented and evaluated new modules in special and inclusive education within an initial teacher education programme in the Republic of Ireland. Analysis and synthesis of data from 24 student teachers and two teacher educators provide insights and understandings into the collaborative interactions and factors that enabled and hindered these interactions. This may support other teacher educators in developing a collaborative pedagogical culture to enhance greater understanding of the SoTL We argue for adopting self-study as a scholarly approach to engage with other theories, such as the SoTL, thus contributing to the broader field of teacher education research.     

Ethical dilemmas in designing collaborative research: Lessons learned the hard way

In this article I use my own problematic experience as a well-intentioned educational researcher to highlight some of the dilemmas and complexities of collaboration with classroom teachers. Engaged in an otherwise pleasant and productive research project in partnership with a primary grade teacher, I experienced deep methodological difficulties linked to the ethical heart of collaborative research. Given that this model - university-based researchers entering into "collaborative" research relationships with classroom teachers - is becoming an increasingly prevalent strategy, it is important to consider fully the potential challenges and obstacles we might face in these relational research contexts.     

The importance of school leaders’ engagement in socialising newly qualified teachers into the teaching profession

This article focuses on the importance of school leaders’ commitment to socialising newly qualified teachers (NQTs) into the teaching profession. Framed by a social constructivist perspective, the article is based on four challenges novice teachers face as described by four school leaders. The aim is to illuminate how school leaders have understood the conflicts and differences that come to light in these challenges. School leaders’ experiences of the encounter between NQTs and schools point to how the facilitation of the teachers’ professional development at their schools was challenged and how follow-up and guidance of NQTs only started after the problems were disclosed to colleagues and the school leaders. This study indicates that there is a lack of insight into NQTs’ work situation, a fact that seems to exacerbate a negative development in the school environment. We argue that school leaders must be more proactive by being aware of the dynamics of the teaching team when NQTs join a previously established team. School leaders should communicate the expectations they have for how the team can welcome NQTs’ new ideas, on the one hand, and offer support if they encounter challenges, on the other. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the composition of teaching teams must be reassessed from year to year so that they serve as an arena that promotes professional development for both NQTs and established teachers. Poor relationships with colleagues and a lack of cooperation within teacher teams may also have a detrimental effect on student learning. School leaders have a great amount of power and influence, perhaps much more than they are aware of, when it comes to the wellbeing of NQTs and their decision to remain in the profession. We underline the importance of the role school leaders have in socialising NQTs into the teaching profession by paying attention to how they are welcomed and mentored by their colleagues in school.