Cooperation/Collegiality
Holmes Elementary - What is a PLC? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75I6MfRO0Po
Collaborative cultures in schools are primarily reflecting personal relationships, rather than educational views. They identified four areas in which a collaborative culture influences the teaching practice. Firstly, there is a broad consensus among the staff about teaching methods. Secondly, the culture reflects ideas about what collegial relations are and should be. The group “was not seen as a moral burden but as the means by which and the context within which individuals could achieve their maximum development” (Nias et al. 1989, p. 50). The culture results, thirdly, in a strong sense of commitment to a common task. Finally, the impact on actual teaching behavior and more in particular of the choice for team teaching showed a paradox: “Where there is a school-wide culture which encourages teachers to think of themselves as individually different but mutually dependent they may, but often do not, teach in tandem. [...] But sub-groups, especially those which are built upon or incorporate team-teaching, impede school-wide acceptance of particular practices and inhibit the open discussion that might eventually lead to the creation of a whole school perspective” (Nias et al. 1989, pp. 52-53)