Introduction
The education sector is one field that has had various developments, and collegiality and teacher development is one aspect that has taken center stage. In many places all over the world, the teaching profession is not given much regards, and there are few young people who are usually willing to join the career. However, this profession can be made attractive to the young people who are going into other professions. Making it attractive would need the participation of the society and the schools’ management board. It is thus important that like in any other profession, the teachers and their heads should have a relationship that is mutually beneficial.
Team work spirit is very important in any organization that aspires to grow, and the schools are not exempted. There have been the formations of different professional centers for teachers that are aimed at fostering team spirit. Increased campaigns aimed at improving collegial relationship between teachers and the school heads, can bring about the required policies that can improve the education sector.
Improvement in schools’ performance and teaching can occur when there is good leadership that is exhibited. Good leadership in schools has a powerful though indirect influence that affects how the teachers and students perform in schools. Students are motivated to perform well and achieve good grades in schools by the quality of teaching they get. However, teachers on the other hand are motivated to teach and perform well in their duties by leadership quality that is shown by the school heads. A good leadership in schools should be dispersed among the people in the school rather than having to concentrate in a person or a status. This implies creating an environment in which people can learn and work as a team aiming for the same goals. Schools that have adopted these strategies have mostly had improvement in performance, through leadership (Hopkins, 2001). In essence, this implies that teachers are given powers and authority to lead. With this perspective, any teacher can be given a chance of becoming a leader hence fostering the collective responsibilities.
The role of teacher leadership can be divided into four categories. The main important role of the teachers is the brokering role. In this role, the leader teacher ensures that they provide all the required links and opportunities for development within the school. The second role is the participating role, which allows the teacher to be part of the development as well as the shareholders in the school affairs. This role is important as it can allow leader teachers to assist the colleagues in looking for a better collaborative way of working. In essence, all the teachers participate in shaping the school, but under the guidance of the leaders. Mediation is the third role of the teacher leaders. The teacher leaders should be able to give expertise and information to the colleagues, even if it implies getting external assistance. Finally, the leader should be able to forge a good relationship with the others teachers. This is very important in enabling mutual learning to occur (Harris & Muijs, 2002).
Purpose of the Study
This study has been undertaken to understand the importance of collegial interaction in schools and how it has been used to develop leadership among teachers. There are different organizational cultures that have been developed and can be maintained or changed by the way the employees interact with one another. Therefore, it is the purpose of this paper to prove how leadership development among teachers can be achieved by having a collegial interaction. In many cases, the teaching professionals have been taken to be poor leaders, and only tend to get orders from the policy makers. However, this is not true, as leadership can be developed, and as teachers can change their long known culture, they can be able to be better leaders than even their policy makers. Therefore, it is the mandate of this paper to show the literature that indicates how leadership can be developed through collegial interaction, and that teachers can be their own leaders who can make informed decisions about things that affect them, rather than having to wait for policy makers.
Music in schools is one social aspect that brings together varied population of the school community. Music class is one aspect that can encourages collegial interaction. This is a class that when looked at keenly can discourage the traditional reserved teaching methods and encourage the interactive mode of teaching, as all the people in the songster brigade can wholly participate.
Inquiry Statement
Teachers and the teaching profession have been in isolation for quite a long period. This is because many people have been made to believe that the duties of the teachers are only in class rooms, which is only to teach. This has made it impossible for the teachers to be given chances to make important decisions that affect them, but rather they have to wait for the policy makers to even decide on matters that affect the teachers, while calling for the teacher’s solution. All this can be avoided if leadership development is put in place to encourage teachers to become their own leaders. The major problem in school leadership is that the leadership is concentrated into a few individuals or personalities. This demoralizes the teachers in their work, and it is thus important that they be given chances to lead through collegial interaction.
Hypothesis
H0: Collegial Interaction helps in teacher leadership development.
H1: Collegial Interaction does not play any role in teacher leadership development.
H2: Teacher leadership motivates teachers’ working.
H3: Teacher leadership does not play any role in the working conditions of the teacher.
Literature review
Good working environment is a very important aspect to the organizational employees as its one of the motivators in making them to work hard. According to a study done by Purkey & Smith, (1983), regular interaction between colleagues at the work place has been found to be a very important tool in developing a good working environment in the organization. This can as well be applied in the schooling environment. Schools that are found to be effective in there work reports to have frequent teacher interactions.
Teaching profession has not experienced a lot of collegial interactions, as it has always been considered to be a lonely job. There are some researches that have concluded that the teaching profession has failed to develop because of its isolation nature Jackson (2000). This is because in the teaching profession, there is little time the teachers listens to others, as they do most of the talking. There are little or no adult contacts evidenced in a teacher’s day (Rosenholtz, 1989). In a research done by Lortie (1975), he concluded that teacher development was hampered by isolation fact, since there is no room for the improvement of the skills. It has to be understood that a good teacher development occurs when the skills are obtained through trial and error. Trial and error is very important as it helps the teacher to be able detect where the problems lies, and come up with concrete solutions. In isolation, the teachers are also disadvantaged since they have no one to emulate as their role model. There are no much chances for interaction between teachers in many schools and it has also been found out that there is no formal communication between the teachers (Sandholtz, Ringstaff & Dwyer, 1991). Many teachers have expressed their views that if given time to interact frequently with their colleagues and work together, they would improve their work. Creation of different teams within the schools can improve the level of collaboration between the teachers and their mode of communication (Charters, 1980). However as Charters argues, the problem has however been that many teachers have not been able to team work for a long time. Thus to make the team work to be efficient and successful, the teachers needs to be given long term assistance. In essence, teaching has been considered as a profession practiced behind closed doors.
There are other arguments that show that the teaching profession is no longer an as isolated as it used to be taken (Jarzabkowski, 2001). This is mostly because of the adoption of many other tasks that are undertaken in schools by the teachers which are collaborative and not necessarily teaching. This is slowly replacing the individualism which is the major characteristic of teachers’ work.
The need to have teacher development contributed to the adoption of peer collaboration among the teachers to improve their working. In the Rosenholz’s (1989) study, he suggested that there was need to have schools that encouraged collaboration networks that would have seen improvement in different areas, and thus help the teachers’ profession to grow. Different researchers have suggested that the model for teachers’ development should be constructed around the collegial interaction (Hargreaves 1990; Little 1991). This suggestion saw the increased calls for these models to be undertaken (Fullan, 1993). There have been many developmental activities that have been undertaken to see that there are many opportunities that could provide teachers with collaboration investigations that help to develop the curriculum and be innovative. Peer planning as well as team planning are some of the programs that have been used to develop teacher leader development (Hawkey, 1997).
Improved working requires that a person be innovative, however, this cannot be easily achieved in schools since priority is given to homeostatic than the innovative forces (Joyce, 1982). The reason that can also make the teachers to reject the innovation is because it is given by the policy makers who do not know much about the teaching profession. According to Gersten & Guskey (1985), teachers would only embrace innovation if they feel that it will enable them to give much better teachings to their students. However, it is not possible that such a change might occur in a short time. Collegial sharing and given time has been found to enable the teachers to embrace innovativeness (Joyce, 1982). A good teacher leader is the one who can encourage the others to take up new ideas and become innovative, as well as taking up leadership roles (Sandholtz, Ringstaff & Dwyer, 1991).
In Hargreaves (1990) work, he concluded that collegiality was a very important tool that was to develop the education sector, and improve schools performance. However, little has been done to show the importance of collegiality in the teacher development. Collegiality has been seen as a strategy that can booster the relationship between the teachers themselves and their heads. Collegiality has been found to foster teacher development where they can learn from one another through sharing hence develop their profession (Lieberman, 1988).
Collegial interaction acts as a foundation for enabling the teachers to share ideas, thus bringing up leadership skills and quality (Little, 1991). There have been cases when some people have argued that there be forceful collegiality so that it can lead to having positive results that would benefit the school. Collaboration and leadership among teachers goes hand in hand since it enables any change to be undertaken in a collective manner, involving all the teachers. A good teacher leadership should be able to show power distribution from the top to bottom. This implies that there is dispersion of authority within the teaching fraternity. All this aspects can be found by working in a collegial manner (Harris & Muijs, 2002). In this working culture, there is a spontaneous and voluntary working relationship between the teachers and their leaders.
The schools that look forward to improving the performance of their students must first play a significant role in empowering the teachers , and setting a good ground for the teachers to be innovative, and develop one another in the team through learning together (Harris & Muijs, 2002). In a research done by Louis & Makrs (1998), they found that there is a positive correlation between the teachers’ who have incentives to work in a professional community with and the academic outcome of the students. In schools that have leadership distributed to the entire community of the school, students’ performance in academic areas is likely to be boosted (Silns & Mulford, 2002). It has been argued that the schools that are found to be more successful than the unsuccessful ones have mostly embraced the norms of collegiality.
The culture of teachers as many other cultures is not static, but rather dynamic. This means that the cultures might turn out not to be stable at most instances. This is because the culture of teachers and the relationship they have with one another might end up changing as time goes by. According to Hargreaves (1990), these changes might occur prior or paralleled with the culture changes. This implies that any changes that might occur in the relationship of the staff members, it will have an effect on their beliefs, values as well as attitudes they have over each other. This shows the role that school culture can play in the lives of the teachers.
Despite the general agreement about the importance of the development of the teacher’s career by the use of collegial interaction, there has been no much literature in this field. Mitchell (1997) concluded that there is slim literature that supports the importance played by interaction in teacher development. Furthermore, there are some people who do not agree with the notion that collegial interaction plays a significant role in the improvement of the work of teachers. For instance, Ihara (1988) argued that affection between the teachers would make them have improved cooperation and supporting one another. However, this does not imply that it is due to collegiality. In most cases, teachers like to listen to one another and talk about their failures and successes, which are usually more so during the emotional times. Through talking and expressing ones feeling, the teachers’ values and beliefs can be known, and it could help in determining and developing a good leader.
Methodology
The research was conducted using structured questionnaires that entailed quantitative and qualitative methods. The questions were both closed and open ended. The purpose for this was to encourage the correspondents to fully express their views on how collegiality can be used to develop teacher development, regardless of their subjects. The questionnaire was divided into four parts, the first dealing with personal data of the respondent, the second dealt with the means of collegial interaction, the third on means of enhancing the interaction, and finally, the fourth part dealt with teacher improvement.
Those interviewed were teachers that had at least a year teaching experience. The respondents were teachers dealing in different subject areas. The respondents were teachers of different grades and school environments.
Results
In the first section of the questionnaire that was looking at the personal data, most of the respondents were female teachers (66%), and the male respondents were 34%. Of all the respondents, most of the teachers preferred to do their work alone when preparing for the next lesson (70%), but in the other extra curriculum activities, the teachers preferred to collaborate with their colleagues (90%).
Looking at the time spend by teachers on conversing with their colleagues, most of the teachers spend very little time in a week (about 3 hours on average ) to talk with their colleagues. This is only about 8% of the whole time the teacher has in school that is used to talk to the colleagues.
When the teachers were asked what they thought constitutes teacher collegiality, most of them said that it is the process in which teachers interact and work together as a team. The team work is shown by such issues as interacting with one another, caring, showing concern, cooperating with the colleagues, helping them when need be, and showing team spirit through sharing. The teachers also felt that collegial interaction is shown by having spontaneous and enjoyable moments together as a team. Sharing a common vision and goals would make the teachers have an increased personal behavior they have with one another. This seems to increase trust among the teachers. Trust is a very important aspect in having a positive collegial relationship.
Teachers put high regards on interaction while working together. There are many ways in which teachers work together. Willingness to work is a very important aspect of any teacher disregarding the subject or grades the teacher deals with, to have a good collegial relationship. This was confirmed by the respondents who put a lot of emphasis on the attitude of willingness to work. Furthermore, the teachers indicated the willingness to cooperate with the colleagues. This would help them to learn from the colleagues and gain more experience.
Music is a subject that has to be enjoyable and make the participants to be all inclusive. Therefore, to achieve much in this area, many teachers felt that working together in this area to get more productivity, the togetherness should be enjoyable. Working together and collaborating shows teachers’ concerns to one another. Caring for the fellow colleagues in school by teachers has been rooted as a good course that increases collegiality. Concern is shown by for instance one teacher standing up for another who is in a problem.
Communication is a very important aspect in developing collegial relationship between the teachers themselves, and the teachers and the administration. Communication can help the teachers to get ideas from the colleagues that could not be within the structured meetings.
Friendliness is a very important aspect that according to many teachers could help in developing collegial relationship. Most of the teachers interviewed indicated having friendly relationship with their colleagues. By working together as a team, the teachers develop a friendly atmosphere. Through friendship, the teachers will develop sincerity and camaraderie among themselves.
Most of the respondents admitted that giving and receiving help was also a major aspect in developing collegial relationship. This is observed when a colleague comes forward to help another, or they join hands to help the students. The good help comes from having the willingness to assist others beyond your teaching borders.
Like in any profession, the teachers indicated the importance of having a good rapport and respect in the institution. The rapport should therefore be developed between teachers in the same and even different departments. A good rapport will encourage collegial interaction to develop in the institutions.
The teachers also believe that they need to have a sense of belonging for them to develop collegiality. The teachers do not need to feel like they are outsiders or that they are not in the right place while in school. They have to be part of every activity that takes place.
Many teachers also related sharing to collegiality. The more the teachers shared, the more the collegiality developed among them. There are many different ways in which the teachers shared, for instance teaching materials, ideas or opinions. When the teachers share, there is more indication of willingness to help one another. Sharing will entail that teachers will share the same visions and dreams helping the entire team to achieve the given dreams. Most of the teachers with vast experience have indicated the different things they have shared with one another for the whole period they have been in the school ranging from material to immaterial things.
Sharing can be linked to team spirit as indicated by most respondents. The teachers felt that fostering team spirit could increase collegiality among them. With team spirit, the fears of vices like backbiting are eliminated, and develop the sense of being open and working together as a team.
Coming together in a spontaneous manner and being ready to help in other activities that are outside class work was also thought as playing a significant role in developing collegiality. Taking the case of music, there are many talented musicians who are not actually music teachers, but due to their talent, many are willing to come forward and assist their fellow music teachers and students. In another instance, the respondent felt that spontaneous could be informal, in that it applied to teachers in a certain quarter.
Respect as a part of personal behavior has been taken by teachers regardless of one’s area of specialization to be also a very important aspect of collegiality. Due to sharing common goals in collegial schools, the teachers in these schools are more likely to develop a positive attitude towards one another. The teachers indicated that commitment and trust played an important role in developing collegial relationship.
In teacher development, most of the teachers indicated that they were ready to attend some courses that would improve their personal development and thus enhance their leadership quality and roles. There are many different courses that when undertaken by teachers can improve their leadership roles and personal development and be able to interact with their peers in a good way.
Discussion
Looking at the responses given by the teachers on what constitutes collegiality; most of the answers given surround interaction. In having a good interaction with others, the teachers can be able to develop their personality and be good leaders in their specialized fields as well as other fields outside the class. As earlier indicated in the literature review, leadership can be developed, and many teachers were wiling to attend classes that would help improve their personality and leadership roles. Therefore, looking at this study, it indicates the existence of a symbiotic relationship between teacher leadership development and having a good collegial relationship. Teachers who have enjoyed a better collegial relationship are in a better position to develop leadership than those who have not had any collegial interaction. This is mostly because such teachers have never learnt important aspects such as sharing or giving, and most important team work and how the team can be motivated.
The teachers who have had collegial interaction have had great changes in their work as they can make important decisions and be able to carry them out with the help of the colleagues rather than having to wait for policy makers to make decisions and pass them to the teachers and only to come and see if they have been implemented or not. These are the kind of issues that have either motivated or made the teachers to loose morale in carrying out their work in a diligent manner.
Collaboration is important as was indicated by teachers in instructional topics. This leads to having a team teaching and remove the isolation that has been depicted to be in the classrooms. Sometimes, team teaching might appear more demanding to the teachers, but with time as the teachers become used to it, they get to know how important it is, as they start to see the advantages.
Conclusion
As earlier argued, culture is not static but rather dynamic. Therefore, the teachers’ isolation culture and having to wait for the policy makers to make decisions for them can be changed by developing teacher leadership through embracing collegial interaction. To restructure the schools in the developmental lines, the working conditions of the teachers are critically supposed to be looked at. Significant changes can take place in schools if teachers are encouraged to fully have collegial interaction and develop leadership skills that can help them in their career.
Teachers need to be motivated to take up leadership roles. It has been shown that through leadership, teachers receive intrinsic rewards, which include collegiality, among others (Harris & Muijs, 2002). Through leadership, learning is made possible for all the other teachers, and the leaders themselves. The teacher leaders take their roles outside the classrooms and thus forge a way of encouraging others to take up development issues more seriously. Hence development of teacher leadership is essential in professional guide.
Reflection
To have the impact of teachers’ leadership felt, it has to come from what is expected from collaboration. This encourages teachers to participate in collaborative activities that are beneficial to improving the teaching and performance of the teachers. This will generally change the teaching perspective which would be a reflective process relying on collegial interaction. Teachers needs to be given time and support to see that they attain leadership effectively. There are many barriers that avoid teachers to work outside their specialized areas. These barriers needs to be removed so that collegial interaction can easily take place as the teachers would be able to work as a team even outside their specialized areas. There is also need for the teachers to be encouraged to be innovative, through taking risks in this line. This can be achieved by having powers distributed to the entire teacher community and avoiding the blame innovation.
Leadership is a very powerful concept among the teachers as it is developed around the collegial norms that are developed in the school. Furthermore, it is powerful since it recognizes the ability of all the teachers to be leaders, and the quality of leadership will affect the relationship in the school and the outcome of teaching. This makes all the teachers to aim at providing quality education to their students, and it shows that leadership is a collective endeavor that allows all teachers to participate.
Application
Collegial interaction can be applied in any professional field to increase participation among the team members by giving them chances to become leaders in their groups. This applies also very much in teaching profession cutting across all the subjects in the schools. Therefore, to change the culture that has made many youths to avoid teaching careers in favor of other professions, collegial interaction should be highly encouraged and applied in schools.
Reference:
Charters, W. (1980): Formal organization and faculty communication: A study of the
Multi-unit elementary school. Center for Educational Policy and Management, Eugene
Fullan, M. (1993): Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. London: Falmer.
Gersten, R. & Guskey, T. (1985): Transforming Teacher Reluctance to Teacher Commitment. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago).
Hargreaves, A. (1991): Restructuring: Post modernity and the Prospects for Educational Change. Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Ill
Harris A. & Muijs D (2002): Teacher Leadership: A Review of Research, retrieved on 9th October 2008 from https://www.ncsl.org.uk/mediastore/image2/randd-teacher-leadership-full.pdf.
Hawkey, K. (1997). Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships in Mentoring: A Literature Review and Agenda for Action. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 48 Issue 5, 325-335.
Hopkins, D. (2001): School Improvement for Real, London Falmer Press
Ihara, C. K. (1988). Collegiality as a Professional Virtue. In a. Flores (Ed.), Professional Ideas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Jackson, D. (2000) The School Improvement Journey: perspectives on leadership School Leadership and Management, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp 61-79.
Jarzabkowski, L.M (2001): The Social Dimensions of Teacher Collegiality, Retrieved on 9th October 2008 from http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/jar01124.htm.
Joyce, B. (1982) Organizational homeostasis and innovation: Tightening the loose
Couplings, Journal of Education and Urban Society, Vol. 15. Issue 1, pp 42–69.
Lieberman, A. (1988). “Teachers and Principals: Turf, Tension and New Tasks.” Phi Delta Kappan.
Little, J. W. (1990): The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers’ Professional Relations. Teachers College Record, 91, 50-536.
Lortie, D. C. (1975): Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mitchell, A. (1997). Teacher identity: A key to increased collaboration. Action in Teacher Education, Vol. 19. Issue 3, pp 1-14.
Purkey, S. C. & Smith, M. S. (1983): Effective Schools—A Review. Elementary School
Journal, Vol. 83, 427–452.
Rosenholz, S. J. (1989). Teachers’ workplace: The social organization of schools. New York: Longman.
Sandholtz J. D, Ringstaff C & Dwyer D.C (1991): The Relationship Between Technological Innovation and Collegial Interaction, retrieved on 9th October 2008 from http://images.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/acot/pdf/rpt13.pdf.
Silns, H. & Mulford, B. (2002): Leadership and School Results Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration, Kluwer Press
Appendix 1
Annotated Bibliography
Charters, W. (1980): Formal organization and faculty communication: A study of the
Multi-unit elementary school. Center for Educational Policy and Management, Eugene
In his work, Charter carried out an extensive study that indicated the importance of communication in a team. For good team to develop, it depends on a good communication to take place. Communication is very important in developing an interactive atmosphere as shown by Charter.
Fullan, M. (1993): Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform. London:
Falmer.
There are many models that can be used to bring changes in the education sector as suggested by many researchers. Fullan in his work calls for the implementation of these models to have the required changes in the education sector.
Gersten, R. & Guskey, T. (1985): Transforming Teacher Reluctance to Teacher
Commitment. (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational
Research Association, Chicago).
Teachers have been known not to be very innovative, as they will mostly follow the laid down guidelines in teaching their students. However, Gersten & Guskey explained that teachers are actually innovative, but only when they know that this is going to be of benefit to their students. This work thus shows that despite the fact that teachers have certain cultures they follow, they are not rigid in making changes.
Hargreaves, A. (1991): Restructuring: Post modernity and the Prospects for Educational
Change. Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, Chicago, Ill
Many researches have been undertaken to prove how collegiality can improve the education sector by developing the teachers’ leadership roles and skills. In his paper, Hargreaves puts forth several points that support the importance of collegiality in developing the teacher leadership.
Harris A. & Muijs D (2002): Teacher Leadership: A Review of Research, retrieved on 9th
October 2008 from https://www.ncsl.org.uk/mediastore/image2/randd-teacher-leadership-full.pdf.
Harris & Muijs have done an extensive paper that elaborates the importance of developing leadership among teachers. They go ahead to draw on how this leadership can be developed, and how it relates to collegiality.
Hawkey, K. (1997). Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships in Mentoring: A Literature Review and Agenda for Action. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 48 Issue 5, 325-335.
People can learn and gain a lot when they work in a group that they are more comfortable with. A person can get more help from the peers, and thus it is this importance of peer interaction and mentoring that Hawkey puts forth.
Hopkins, D. (2001): School Improvement for Real, London Falmer Press
Hopkins emphasizes on the importance of having a good working environment that could favor the teacher’s performance and in general the entire school’s performance.
Ihara, C. K. (1988). Collegiality as a Professional Virtue. In a. Flores (Ed.), Professional Ideas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
There are many different virtues that the teachers can have which can make interaction between them to prosper. One of the virtues that were given by Ihara is the affection that teachers show towards each other.
Jackson, D. (2000) The School Improvement Journey: perspectives on leadership School Leadership and Management, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp 61-79.
Teaching as a profession has been considered by many people that it is an isolated profession. In his Journal, Jackson explains why this is so, and how it can be improved.
Jarzabkowski, L.M (2001): The Social Dimensions of Teacher Collegiality, Retrieved on 9th October 2008 from http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/jar01124.htm.
As claimed by researchers that teaching is an isolated profession, Jarzabkowski tries to prove that this is no longer the case as many things have changed in the education sector. This is mostly by looking at how teachers are able to socialize with one another very well in the organization. The socialization runs among teachers themselves, with their students, and their school heads. Hence, Jarzabkowski shows in his arguments that socialization is part of collegiality.
Joyce, B. (1982) Organizational homeostasis and innovation: Tightening the loose
Couplings, Journal of Education and Urban Society, Vol. 15. Issue 1, pp 42–69.
Teachers have been considered to lack innovativeness. Joyce in her research explains the reason that makes teaches to lack this innovativeness.
Lieberman, A. (1988). “Teachers and Principals: Turf, Tension and New Tasks.” Phi Delta Kappan.
The work of Lieberman is important as it shows the importance of collegiality and how it has fostered teacher development. This has been mostly obtained through sharing between the teachers.
Little, J. W. (1990): The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers’ Professional Relations. Teachers College Record, 91, 50-536.
As argued by Lieberman that sharing is important in developing collegiality, the research done by Little shows the foundation of this sharing between the teachers.
Lortie, D. C. (1975): Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The work done by Lortie is among the many researches that have indicated that teachers fail to develop in their careers due to the isolation case.
Mitchell, A. (1997). Teacher identity: A key to increased collaboration. Action in Teacher Education, Vol. 19. Issue 3, pp 1-14.
Despite the many arguments that have been put forward showing the importance of teacher development through interaction, little has been done to support this argument. This notion has been proved by Mitchell.
Purkey, S. C. & Smith, M. S. (1983): Effective Schools—A Review. Elementary School
Journal, Vol. 83, 427–452.
There are many tools that have been found to improve the teachers’ performance in their work. One that has been supported by many researchers is interaction. This is what Purkey & Smith argued in their work.
Rosenholz, S. J. (1989). Teachers’ workplace: The social organization of schools. New York: Longman.
Socialization is a very important factor in helping to develop teacher development. However, as claimed by several researchers that there is a lot of isolation among teachers, Rosenholz proves this by arguing about the minimal contact that the teachers have in schools.
Sandholtz J. D, Ringstaff C & Dwyer D.C (1991): The Relationship between Technological Innovation and Collegial Interaction, retrieved on 9th October 2008 from http://images.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/acot/pdf/rpt13.pdf.
Technology is very important in all the sectors of the economy, and those who embrace this are able to develop in many areas. This was proved by these researchers when they carried out a research to find out the relationship between collegial interaction and using technology in teaching.
Silns, H. & Mulford, B. (2002): Leadership and School Results Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration, Kluwer Press
Leadership distribution is very important as it helps in motivating the teachers, and the effect of their improved performance is what Silns & Mulford shows in their work that it affects even the academic performance of the students.
