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Collaboration amoung teachers

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Gerald Grant & Christine E. Murray.
Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
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Grant and Murray report on the New Roles Study, comprising research in 9 schools in 4 districts from 1990-98. They also survey "a wide range of national and international quantitative data" (239-41). Their focus is on "what happens in the teacher's encounter with students that allows learning to take place?"

The authors identify five "essential acts of teaching" (32):

• knowing the students
• engaging them in learning
• acting as models of a good life
• assessing students' moral and intellectual growth
• reflecting on the arts of teaching that enable that growth

Grant and Murray discuss the nature of collaborative cultures in the nine schools studied and identify "what is needed for teachers to create collaborative cultures, as opposed to "contrived collegiality" (as defined by Andy Hargreaves, see page 187).

The development of such a culture in one school (Hilltop Elementary School) is described. Factors contributing to the development of a collaborative culture include:

• teachers' recognition that they had a common problem and a shared need to address

• relationships characterized by mutual respect, a sense of fairness and democratic decision-making, a willingness to tell the truth, the ability to resolve conflicts, genuine support for the development of new teaching skills, and shared belief in experimentation. The importance of human dynamics cannot be underestimated.

• administrators [role in] fostering relationships with and among teachers effective leadership (191-3)

The level of success ("collaboration among colleagues") reported at Hilltop was not sustained. These factors are cited by the authors:

• strong sense of commitment , previously fostered by administrators began to wane
• new principal not perceived as sharing teachers vision and was not viewed as a leader
• no external support provided by state or professional school linkages

According to the Grant and Murray, "The degree to which teachers value collaboration and invest in it is also important. Teachers face a three-part test in deciding whether to invest in any collaborative venture: First, will it help their students? Second, will collaboration make a positive difference in their teaching? And finally, is there adequate support for the work? If the answer to any of these questions is negative, teachers' support for the work will fail to materialize or quickly wane. In all of our schools, teachers were struggling to carve out time to work together, in most cases with little organizational support" (193).

The book also treats mentoring, curriculum planning, and peer review.