Discussion forum 4.2.

I asked my husband, who teaches in a small, low-SES primary school, about collaboration and he expressed a view that is wide-spread: I don’t share because I don’t get any credit for my work (paraphrased).

To review what the barriers to successful collaboration really are, the top of the pile is this:

We don’t really understand what it means to collaborate or how it could benefit us or our students. 

We think it’s just about sharing resources. We confuse it with the other, closely-related terms identified by Montiel-Overall (2005, p.25): networking, coordination, cooperation and partnership. Each is valuable and necessary but they probably don’t involve the shared thinking that she identifies as an important first step in the collaboration process.

The second key barrier is this lack of acknowledgement and recognition felt by most educators. That no one sees what we do, our successes both big and small, or appreciates the time, effort and personal expertise that we put into our work. The paradox is that, we are so caught up in the idea that no one recognises our expertise (Gibson-Langford, 2008, pp.32-3) – our ‘personal mastery’, as Senge (2007) calls it – that we can become blind to other people’s areas of expertise.

When we are time-poor and beset on all sides by more and more demands, both administrative and curriculum-based, and there’s no structural support for yet another professional development ‘requirement’ that feels and sounds like just another fad (teachers are skilled at looking and sounding compliant with the latest top-down initiative while knowing that in a couple of years it will be forgotten and the school will move on, so what’s the point in expending energy you don’t have?), we feel that ‘collaboration’ is the enemy. This perspective is based on the lack of conceptual understanding mentioned above, and a very clear understanding of the realities of teaching, at any level. At some schools, especially primary schools, teachers in a grade level are told what to teach and how in their ‘professional learning communities’ (PLCs); the school culture is a cohesive one with rigorous standards for teachers and students alike, but there’s arguably little to no creativity.

They say that real change (or revolution!) comes from below. The people have to want it, and drive it. In a school setting, senior staff need to be in touch to see what’s going on and support it, but as soon as it becomes a directive, it will be sure to fail.

Others have already mentioned it of course, but I agree that it needs to start with one receptive teacher. And because of the misunderstandings of what collaboration actually entails – the misinformed belief that it is simply sharing resources from which others can benefit while you receive no credit – it would be important that the TL does not call it ‘collaborate’ at first. Maybe after, when reflecting and assessing how it went with the colleague teacher, but not when initiating it. It needs to be disguised so that the jaded classroom teacher doesn’t shift into cynical, resistant mode. It can’t be forced, it needs to be organic, growing from an informal conversation (as described in some of the readings).

As a classroom teacher (I work one day a week in the school library, as support for the two TLs and the students, and to learn the job), I can honestly say I didn’t understand what ‘collaboration’ meant, and I know from my experiences and conversations with others, that no one really does. Spenge (2007) describes structural change, a shared vision and rethinking ‘mental models’ (p.8) as a means for empowering employees at all levels and driving up corporate successes. I can’t help but feel that the school environment is a bit different, that the types of people attracted to teaching are already the ‘lone ranger’ types. And, ironically, teachers themselves tend to have fixed mindsets and be resistant to learning new things. We’ve all observed it, even in ourselves.

So I would argue that it is really important for the Teacher Librarian to understand these mindsets (and I think they already understand it, better than anyone!), and keep this in mind when approaching teachers. As Karen Bonanno said in her speech at the 2011 ASLA conference, “A profession at the tipping point”, the idea is to find the one teacher in the school who wants to work with you and build on the success from that collaborative partnership. As a TL I plan to invite myself (via the Learning Area manager) to LA meetings in each department, not only to find out what’s going on but also to get a sense of who might be receptive to collaboration.

Because there’s no doubt that great things can happen when we want it.

References

Bonanno, K. (2011). A profession at the tipping point: Time to change the game plan. https://vimeo.com/31003940. 

Gibson-Langford, L. (2008). Collaboration: Force or forced, Part 2. Scan, 27(1), 31-37

Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). A theoretical understanding of teacher and librarian collaboration, School Libraries Worldwide, 11(2), 24-48.

Senge, P. (2007).  Chapter 1: Give me a lever long enough … and single-handed I can move the world. In  The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership, 2nd ed. (pp.3-15)