Here are some of my personal reflections of the response to our findings in a recent piece of work. This research originally examined if and how collaboration has disrupted practice. It was submitted to the CORE Education Research and Inquiry Symposium at ULearn 2016.
Hey Tim I saw this post and thought I'd write a comment seen as our purpose is to engage in discussion! Even though this was written 7 years ago it is still a relevant conversation topic! I witnessed first hand interschool collaboration but also witnessed how disruption and change will not take off or embed if school leaders are not ready for it. 'Time' as a major factor which inhibited collaboration back when you did your research is understandable I guess - we all used time as an excuse for stuff! But it also shows that for these teachers, it wasn't a priority. And to me that is only about not knowing the power and value in it. For so long we worked in our little boxes with our 30 kids and left to our own devices. It was this way for so long! It still is for some. The deprivatisation of our practice is probably scary for some but for others (like myself) I knew I had things to offer but that I could also learn more from others as well. I was in my element for the one year I was teaching collaboratively in a new ILE in 2017. I can say it was the BEST year of my teaching career. Because I could share and work alongside others AND we could challenge and disrupt (respectfully) how things had always been. I will never understand why I was taken out of the ILE after one year - maybe it was too successful? If collaboration is to truly disrupt on a wider scale than in small pockets here and there, I think school leaders have got to be up for it or it just continues in pockets. Thankfully there are school leaders out there making changes on a schoolwide level and across schools I imagine in some places. I wish I had been part of something like that - I still might be teaching if that were the case.
Thanks Kerri, yes this was before the time of Kahui Ako as well so there were not as many opportunities for collaboration for those who were open to it - and I'm hoping that may be different now, it certainly seems like it with the teachers that I talk to locally. You are right though, what hasn't changed is the amount of time in a day, still 24hrs!! Using that time wisely to build trust in collaborative relationships can foster greater collaborative outcomes as we know, and prioritising professional relationships should be on all educators 'to-do' list for the week. We are lucky that there are more ways to do that now and many people feel more comfortable with Zoom post-covid, as well as collaborating remotely. It would be interesting to re-visit the study we did 7 years ago to see if my hunch is right! Thanks for reading!
Hey Tim I saw this post and thought I'd write a comment seen as our purpose is to engage in discussion! Even though this was written 7 years ago it is still a relevant conversation topic! I witnessed first hand interschool collaboration but also witnessed how disruption and change will not take off or embed if school leaders are not ready for it. 'Time' as a major factor which inhibited collaboration back when you did your research is understandable I guess - we all used time as an excuse for stuff! But it also shows that for these teachers, it wasn't a priority. And to me that is only about not knowing the power and value in it. For so long we worked in our little boxes with our 30 kids and left to our own devices. It was this way for so long! It still is for some. The deprivatisation of our practice is probably scary for some but for others (like myself) I knew I had things to offer but that I could also learn more from others as well. I was in my element for the one year I was teaching collaboratively in a new ILE in 2017. I can say it was the BEST year of my teaching career. Because I could share and work alongside others AND we could challenge and disrupt (respectfully) how things had always been. I will never understand why I was taken out of the ILE after one year - maybe it was too successful? If collaboration is to truly disrupt on a wider scale than in small pockets here and there, I think school leaders have got to be up for it or it just continues in pockets. Thankfully there are school leaders out there making changes on a schoolwide level and across schools I imagine in some places. I wish I had been part of something like that - I still might be teaching if that were the case.
Thanks Kerri, yes this was before the time of Kahui Ako as well so there were not as many opportunities for collaboration for those who were open to it - and I'm hoping that may be different now, it certainly seems like it with the teachers that I talk to locally. You are right though, what hasn't changed is the amount of time in a day, still 24hrs!! Using that time wisely to build trust in collaborative relationships can foster greater collaborative outcomes as we know, and prioritising professional relationships should be on all educators 'to-do' list for the week. We are lucky that there are more ways to do that now and many people feel more comfortable with Zoom post-covid, as well as collaborating remotely. It would be interesting to re-visit the study we did 7 years ago to see if my hunch is right! Thanks for reading!