Abstract
The research study discussed in this doctoral dissertation illuminates the
interpretative repertoires used by teachers when describing collaborative team
work. The focus of the study has been guided by an interest to investigate the
ways in which teachers interpret and conceptualise their team work experiences.
The topicality of the study is related to current conflicts found between the
importance of professional collaboration in todays schools and the challenges of
productive teacher collaboration. The theoretical framework of this study
approaches teacher team work from three dimensions, namely from the viewpoint of
current changes in educational policy, the working culture of teachers, and from
the viewpoint of productive teacher collaboration. In this research study,
teacher team work is defined as a process during which teachers work together as
a team in order to plan, carry out and reflect on their classroom
practise.
The methodological basis of this research study is based on the social
constructionist theory of discourse. This approach has been applied in order to
identify what kind of discursive repertoires teachers use when describing
collaboration in their team. Repertoires are seen as culturally and socially
constructed discourses that specify the possibilities of relevant interpretation
in a particular social organisation. The interpretation of repertoires involves
the investigation of functions, contexts and dynamics of teachers verbal
language. The main goal of the analysis is to clarify and model the complexities
of teacher collaboration.
Five interpretative repertoires defining teacher team work were identified
in the empirical data of this study. These are defined as collegial, practical,
group, organisational and hurry repertoires. These repertoires describe the main
contents of teachers collaboration of which construction appears to be based on
the dynamics between and within them. A joint feature across the repertoires
seems to be in an orientation towards an interpretative conflict between
restricting and progressive reasons. The different repertoires and their dynamics
form an interpretative model of teacher team work through which the teachers
interpretations on team work can be evaluated.
The challenges of teacher collaboration appear to arise from a
disintegration of teacher goals and incentives during team work. Critical
incidents of teacher team work seem to be found in collaborative problem solving
situations during which cultural assumptions and the meaning of reform efforts
are often evaluated. Discrepancies between the teachers interpretative
repertoires lead easily to narrow and restricted solutions that can be in
conflict with the reform efforts linked to teacher team work. Furthermore, the
discrepancies in repertoires appear to strengthen group dynamics that orient
towards restricted teacher collaboration. The conflicts in repertoires appear to
increase the need to emphasise alikeness, unity and stability among teachers,
despite the fact that the potential of team work is usually found in distributed
expertise, the construction of global views and in creative learning.
This research study suggests that teacher team work is best supported by
activating teachers to create joint conditions and possibilities for
collaboration. On the basis of this study, positive results in teacher team work
are related to teachers active role in solving emerging conflicts and to the
adjustment of strong oppositions in teachers targets for collaboration. The lack
of community structures in teachers profession and the tendency towards
contradiction appear to support dynamics that effectively restrict teacher
collaboration. The theoretical model build in this research study on teachers
interpretative repertoires of team work serves a good starting point to develop
and support teacher collaboration efforts in future studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:isbn951-42-6405-3 |
| Date | 28 May 2001 |
| Creators | Willman, A. (Arto) |
| Publisher | University of Oulu |
| Source Sets | University of Oulu |
| Language | Finnish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © University of Oulu, 2001 |
| Relation | info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0355-323X, info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1796-2242 |
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