Recent research has examined the influential role coaches may play in supporting teachers’ collective capacity building for instructional improvement. While emerging research is promising, much ...remains to be learned about collaborative approaches to coaching, particularly in schools with the greatest opportunity gaps. We draw on extensive longitudinal qualitative data to explore a collaborative approach to coaching in urban middle schools under pressure to improve math outcomes. Findings reveal key coaching strategies to promote teacher team capacity building, including fostering student-centered discussion and collaborative relationships, tailoring capacity-building opportunities to provide access for all teachers, and negotiating across teachers and leaders to support improvement efforts. This work was complicated by conflicting expectations between leaders and teachers as well as challenges with addressing teachers’ misconceptions about math content in group settings. These findings reflect the need for ongoing capacity building that supports coaches as they attend to group dynamics and accountability pressures.
Accountability has been a major feature of educational policy making across the globe, including in the US where there is a persistent focus on student achievement results. This paper examines how ...accountability influences organizational routines in US schools, paying particular attention to meeting routines. We draw upon in-depth qualitative data gathered in four urban middle schools in which approximately 40 math teachers were engaged in collaboration and data use in order to improve instruction. Over a period of 3 years, we conducted extensive observations of teacher team meetings and interviews with teachers and administrators. An analysis of data reveals that many meetings were dominated by organizational routines that reflected state accountability systems, regardless of whether the topic was assessment, curricular pacing, or planning. At times, teachers and administrators made attempts to shift meeting routines from test-based accountability to a focus on instruction and professional accountability; however, existing routines endured. The findings from this study have important implications for thinking through whether and how the field may move towards more intelligent forms of accountability in the presence of external demands and deeply embedded patterns.
Educational change efforts that prioritize equity for multilingual learners (MLs) require attention to several interconnected components of the education system. We build on prior literature and our ...collective research to clarify the concept of shared responsibility for ML students and to operationalize the concept at the school, district, and state levels. Drawing on institutional theory and a racialized organizations lens, we argue that shared responsibility is embedded in the mindsets, norms, and structures that shape education systems. We also attend to the complexities of fostering shared responsibility in practice, such as grappling with pervasive educator burnout and developing innovative strategies that span levels of the system. We conclude with directions for future research, including studies examining effective approaches for shifting the mindsets, norms, and routines comprising shared responsibility, and recommendations for researchers to play a more active role in shaping shared responsibility for ML students.
As spaces for researchers and practitioners to engage in long-term, mutual collaborations aimed at addressing problems of practice in education, research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer rich ...contexts for research use. Our study examines how interactions between researchers and practitioners shape opportunities for research use in a professional association engaged in RPP activities focused on fostering change in statewide K–12 science education. Drawing on a conceptualization of RPPs as joint work at boundaries, we show how both researchers and practitioners facilitated research use. Furthermore, research use was facilitated by brokers’ engagement in RPP activities and with shared pieces of research. Findings affirm the role that brokers play in connecting research and practice and identify specific activities that may be useful in facilitating research use in RPPs.
A growing body of scholarship foregrounds research–practice partnerships (RPPs) as venues for advancing equity in education. However, few studies focus on partnerships with state education agency ...leaders, despite their influential roles connecting policy and practice. This article explores state leaders’ experiences collaborating in an early-phase, national RPP focused on advancing multilingual learner equity. Findings shed light on how joint work was facilitated through the development of evidence-based resources addressing current problems of practice. Findings also demonstrate the importance of attending to leaders’ dual responsibilities across state and local levels, informing future efforts to foster partnerships with state leaders. Future research is needed to examine the sustainability of state-level RPPs, as well as the experiences of researchers engaging in such partnerships.
Teachers’ engagement in educational reform is an emotional process, yet the emotional dimensions of school improvement efforts remain understudied. This paper explores the emotional experiences of ...two teacher teams navigating a reform centering collaboration for instructional improvement. Drawing on group emotion (Kelly and Barsade in Org Behav Hum Decis Process 86(1):99–130, 2001) as a conceptual framework, this paper illustrates how individual beliefs and dispositions, group norms, and broader contextual factors mediate group emotion and engagement in reform over time. Findings indicate that leaders should attend to how teacher turnover impacts group emotion and engagement in capacity-building, particularly when teachers lose team members who have previously driven productive collaborative planning. Findings also highlight the nested nature of grade-level collaboration, revealing the influential role of department norms and relationships.
While prior literature reviews provide insights into the characteristics and outcomes of teacher collaboration, they minimally address the theories and methods undergirding studies. However, these ...factors profoundly shape research, including how meaning is drawn from findings. Foregrounding theory and methods, this review examines approaches to studying teacher collaboration for instructional improvement. The 43 reviewed publications illustrate that while research on teacher collaboration is methodologically robust and often theoretically grounded, the use of interdisciplinary and critical theories could expand knowledge on collaboration as a pathway for transformation. Findings also illuminate the need for additional longitudinal research as well as studies with a focus on contextual factors such as school funding, size, and student demographics. Such work could inform how productive collaboration can be supported across a range of school contexts.
Literature examining the context of reception reveals how various structural and cultural factors shape newcomers’ experiences, and thus their opportunities for integration. Fewer studies explore how ...school districts are situated in this broader context of reception, or how district policies and practices for newcomers are enabled or constrained by the local context. This study draws on a zones of mediation framework to examine how external forces mediated districts’ approaches to serving growing numbers of immigrant and refugee newcomers. Analysis of interviews with 57 stakeholders from across three districts revealed that the presence or absence of community-based support networks, as well as the extent to which local policies and perceptions emphasized inclusion, mediated districts’ programmatic approaches. Implications for district and community leaders are discussed.
Background/Context: While current research provides key insights about successful collaboration in which teachers experience deep learning and practice change, few studies analyze the content of ...teachers' collaborative conversations about instruction. Even fewer explore how the content of collaborative conversations evolves over time, making it difficult to understand the impact of shifting policies, priorities, and personnel on teachers' collective work. Purpose and Research Questions: To explore teachers' opportunities to learn through collaboration, I draw on the following research questions: How does the depth of teachers' opportunities to learn from collaborative conversations evolve over time? In what ways do contextual factors (e.g., personnel, tools, leadership expectations, coaching) influence these opportunities to learn through collaboration? Participants: This study is situated in two urban middle schools under significant pressure to improve student achievement. I selected one grade-level math team from each school, analyzing their conversations taking place during collaboration meetings. Research Design: To better understand teachers' collaborative learning, I rely on qualitative case study methods. Data collected include interviews and observations of two teacher collaboration groups over four years. I use Horn and colleagues' (2017) taxonomy of teachers' opportunities to learn in conjunction with cultural historical activity theory (Cole & Engeström, 2007) to examine teachers' collective learning over time as this process unfolds in context. Findings/Results: Across both groups, expectations from leadership to improve school performance shaped teachers' opportunities to learn, as did the presence of teachers whose beliefs about math instruction foregrounded student thinking and exploration. Findings demonstrated that for one team, fluctuations in depth of learning also depended on the agendas and protocols used to frame collective work. For the second team, depth of learning opportunities was connected to shifts in personnel and group norms over time. For both teams, high-depth conversations represented no more than a third of the meetings observed in each year, reflecting the complexity of developing effective collaborative cultures supporting deep learning. Conclusions/Recommendations: While high-depth opportunities to learn (OTLs) were infrequent for both teams, the reasons for this scarcity were shaped by each team's context. Leaders hoping to develop collaborative cultures with richer teacher learning opportunities should consider multiple factors shaping OTLs, including collaborative team norms, teachers' beliefs about math instruction, protocols guiding discussions, and the role of accountability pressures in shaping expectations for collective work.
A better understanding of the ways in which school leaders frame collaboration is needed, as the framing of reform efforts plays a large role in steering change. This study explores how leaders' ...frames for collaboration intersect with teachers' collaborative work in four urban middle schools over time. Findings demonstrate the role of accountability pressures in shaping leadership frames about the purpose of collaboration, and misalignment between these frames and qualities of purposeful collaboration. Findings also illustrate a dynamic relationship between leadership frames and teacher collaboration. Ultimately, fostering effective collaborative cultures remained challenging even in schools with increasingly teacher-led collaboration.
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