Moving from Teacher Isolation to Collaboration: Enhancing Professionalism and School Quality

by Sharon Conley, Bruce S. Cooper

Overview

Teaching embodies many roles -- in the classroom through teacher-student interactions, and beyond the classroom through teacher-adult interactions. This book explains and demonstrates how collaboration and teamwork can help enhance professionalism and school quality by overcoming teachers' isolation in the classroom, in the school, and in their work. The contributing authors address: historic patterns of isolation; why collaboration is crucial for vibrant and sustained professionalism; principles of successful team collaboration in schools and other sectors; school districts' structure and support for collaborative teams; forces that motivate or restrain teachers' ability to collaborate; how teachers in grade-level teams perceive the quality of their training and support; team members' perceptions of their work in departments; teachers' use of evidence of student learning to improve teacher and organizational learning; and teacher-principal collaboration from the perspectives of exemplary teachers. These chapters provide insight into the complexity of teachers' roles, and indicate the necessity to build collaboration within the school and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475802726
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	08/29/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	194
File size:	809 KB

About the Author

Sharon Conley, PhD, is professor of education in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bruce S. Cooper, PhD, is professor of educational leadership and policy at Fordham University Graduate School of Education in New York City.

Conley and Cooper are also the editors of Finding, Preparing, and Supporting School Leaders: Critical Issues, Useful Solutions; and Keeping and Improving Today's School Leaders: Retaining and Sustaining the Best.
Bruce S. Cooper, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, Education Administration and Public Policy, Graduate School of Education, Fordham University; having taught at University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College, after receiving his doctorate at the University of Chicago with Donald A. Erickson, as his mentor. Cooper has written 35 books on education politics and policy, including The Handbook of Education Politics and Policy, in two editions with Lance D. Fusarelli and James Cibulka; served as President of the Politics of Education Association and a founding member of Private School Research Association; and received the Jay D. Scribner Award for Mentoring and the UCEA.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
PREFACE
Bruce S. Cooper&Sharon Conley
Chapter 1: Teaching as a Profession - and More: Why? and How?
Bruce S. Cooper&Carolyn Brown
Chapter 2: What has Prevented Teachers From Being Full Professionals? Mary Antony Bair
Chapter 3: Rejuvenating Teacher Teams: Back to Basics
Terrence E. Deal&Donna Redman
Chapter 4: Organizational Design in Support of Professional Learning Communities in One District
Scott C. Bauer, S. David Brazer, Michelle Van Lare,&Robert L. Smith
Chapter 5: Influences on Teacher Sharing and Collaboration
Tanya F. Cook&Vivienne Collinson
Chapter 6: Teaming to Break the Walls of Isolation: Collaboration in Elementary Grade Level Teams
J. John Dewey&Sharon Conley
Chapter 7: Collaboration in Middle School Departments: A Work Group Effectiveness Perspective
Sharon Conley&Frank C. Guerrero
Chapter 8: Professional Learning Communities Using Evidence: Examining Teacher Learning and Organizational Learning
Michelle D. Van Lare, S. David Brazer, Scott C. Bauer,&Robert L. Smith
Chapter 9: Principal-Teacher Collaboration
Vivienne Collinson
EPILOGUE: Collaboration, Professionalism, and School Quality for the Future Bruce S. Cooper

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Editorial Reviews

In the face of unrelenting and often irrational challenges to public education, the teaching profession risks becoming less and less desirable to many. Conley and Cooper offer ways to strengthen both the professionalism and desirability of teaching. Their emphasis on collaboration and professionalism promises to enrich teachers' work and to strengthen schools as well.” —Diana G. Pounder, Ph.D., professor and dean of the college of education, University of Central Arkansas

“Any doubt that educators are looking to collaborate with others throughout the school environment? For teachers are expected to use a variety of relevant data to inform instruction and provide timely feedback, while creating environments where students have a voice in their own learning. This book targets and responds to the critical issues of teacher isolation and collaboration, at a time when strategic engagement is often required of all teachers. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to alter the mindsets that limit how and why time and professional interactions in schools are currently constructed.” —Debra Jackson, Ed.D., superintendent, Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central Schools, NY

From the Publisher

Any doubt that educators are looking to collaborate with others throughout the school environment? For teachers are expected to use a variety of relevant data to inform instruction and provide timely feedback, while creating environments where students have a voice in their own learning. This book targets and responds to the critical issues of teacher isolation and collaboration, at a time when strategic engagement is often required of all teachers. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to alter the mindsets that limit how and why time and professional interactions in schools are currently constructed.

Debra Jackson

In the face of unrelenting and often irrational challenges to public education, the teaching profession risks becoming less and less desirable to many. Conley and Cooper offer ways to strengthen both the professionalism and desirability of teaching. Their emphasis on collaboration and professionalism promises to enrich teachers' work and to strengthen schools as well.

Diana G. Pounder