Relationships in School- Collaboration & Collegiality

We speak so often about opening the walls of our classroom to the world. With collaborative 21st century tools, such as Skype and wikis, we try to encourage teachers to reach beyond their customary horizon out to others in the world.

Global awareness and collaboration is my passion, BUT what about internal (within your own school building) awareness and collaboration? What about making sure that the relationships  and culture within your own school is productive, cooperative,  in sync and conducive to student learning?

How can a faculty, that works together in a brick and mortar building, become aware of each other’s:

• teaching content
• teaching style
• learning style
• teaching practice
• projects
• connections
• resources
• successes

What kind of characteristics can be found in a school, where the culture sparkles with collegiality, collaboration and sharing?

I wrote in a  post last year , Sharing in Education- Is it Changing?,  about an experience I had with a colleague:

I remember being told in my first year of teaching by a colleague, that I should be a little bit more careful when offering to share lesson plans, successes or project ideas. She told me that would make me look like a “bragger” and would make others look bad, which they would not be appreciating. I was completely blown away by seeing my genuine interest in sharing taken that way.

Was that the kind of a relationship I had to look forward to as a member of a teaching faculty? How was I going to learn and grow, if sharing was not valued, no even being frowned upon?

Chris Sessums pondered in a post Collaboration and Collegiality in Teacher Professional Development Settings

Collaboration and collegiality take teacher development beyond individual reflection, or reliance on external experts, to a point where educators can learn from one another, sharing and building expertise together.

Chris furthermore asks the question:

How do the patterns of relationships among teachers affect collaboration and collegiality?

I stumbled upon an article by Roland Barth in the Educational Leadership titled Improving Relationships within the Schoolhouse (pdf).

Barth discusses various forms of relationships among adults within a schoolhouse that seem to shed some light on Sessums’ question.

Parallel Play
Teachers teach in the same building, even next door to each other, but do not share with each other. They stay within their own classroom as to avoid any conflict or discussion about their practices.

Adversarial Relationships
There are blatant adversarial relationships, where teachers or administrators openly attack other teachers’ teaching practice,  style, character or projects.  There are also more subtle adversarial ways. The latter being in form of withholding. Barth  brings up the issue of competition among teachers for “scarce resources and recognition”.

The guiding principle of competition are: “The better you look, the worse I look” and “The worse you look, the better I look.”

Congenial Relationships

This relationship has to do with day to day interaction between the adults in a school. Saying Hello in the hallway, making friendly conversation in the faculty lounge, etc. These relationships seems to be superficial.

Collegial Relationships
Teachers actively work together. They are aware of each other, share their own expertise and seek each other’s advice and help

Collegiality is about getting them [teachers] to play together, about growing a professional learning community
[...]
Indicators of collegiality among teachers and administrators:

• Educators talking with one another about practice
• Educators sharing their craft knowledge
• Educators observing one another while they are engaged in practice
• Educators rooting for one another’s success

In order to create a culture of collegiality, Barth suggests that leaders have to make “relationships among adults a discussable”. He cites Judith Warren Little who lists the following ways for administrators to foster collegiality in their school:

• State expectations explicitly
• Model collegiality
• Reward those who behave as colleagues
• Protect those who engage in these collegial behaviors

What do you and your administration do to foster a sense of collegiality in YOUR school? Do you think it makes a difference in student and professional learning?