The ease and instant nature of modern communication means that teachers now have greater opportunities for collaboration than ever before.
Organic networks, often spawned online, are enabling teachers to create “personal learning communities”, whether it be via TeachMeets, conferences or online groups.
In such a time-pressured career, social media, in particular, has provided powerful new platforms for teachers to connect, share and organise. Getting more teachers to embrace these networks helps the profession, but there are dangers and downsides, too.
For me, Twitter has provided support and challenges on my journey from new head of English to emergent senior leader. The collaborative network I’m proud to be a part of is Team English. It’s a diverse group of thousands of secondary English teachers and leaders, with a core group who chatter daily about everything from curriculum and lesson planning to learning theory and pedagogical approaches. More formally, there’s also a weekly themed chat (@EngChatUK), conference presentations and two well-established Dropboxes.
How, then, can you as a teacher break in and benefit from these groups, or even spawn a collaborative network of your own?
To begin with, any collaboration needs a unique selling point. The collaboration should provide something the participants can’t currently get. For a head of department, this could be the ability to work with people doing the same role in the same subject. For a teacher, it could be the chance to work with people interested in the same aspect of practice or trying to address underachievement in a similar cohort of students.
When the USP has been defined, the next stage is to find participants. At this point, it may well seem that local authority or academy networks are the most immediately accessible. These types of networks come with a deep understanding of the context in which you are all working. However, I’d argue you would be in danger of creating an echo chamber in which similar ideas are shared and reinforced.
It’s difficult to be truly open to challenge. You have to be secure in yourself, never mind in your teaching practice, to accept critical debate and questioning. But professional challenge is essential for school improvement and, for this to happen, I’d argue the best collaborations mean hearing voices from outside of your locality. By doing this, you’ll be able to judge yourself and your practice against the very best.
Putting yourself out there
How can you find would-be collaborators who aren’t in your immediate vicinity? The most powerful networks I have been involved in have developed organically through seemingly chance interactions. It’s the classic “I know someone who knows someone who...” process. Social media can have a powerful role to play in this, whether it’s Twitter lists or recommendations or chance encounters on a Facebook messaging board. It can also mean putting yourself out there. I have been known to email the admin email address from a school website in order to try to make contact with someone who worked there or find out more about an aspect of their practice.
You may be lucky enough to discover an already-established network that fits the bill. In this eventuality, it’s perhaps most important to approach people in a way that adheres to the golden rule of “treat people how you want to be treated”. I doubt on day one of a new job you’d walk into someone else’s classroom and ask them to plan your lessons for you. Equally, it’s not the done thing to make your first tweet to someone a request for them to send you a full scheme of work. Share something of yours first, even it’s just an idea, and you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Go begging and it’s unlikely that you’ll be offered a metaphorical cuppa from your new partners.
Any network will struggle to survive if the teachers who are part of it behave in a way that means you wouldn’t want to work with them in real life. Another faux pas that’ll mean your hoped-for collaboration struggles to get off the ground is bragging. Note: this isn’t the same as celebrating the success of your students or sharing an idea that has worked.
The final kiss of death is perhaps most pertinent to educational consultants or those with a book to sell: branding. In my humble opinion, teacher collaboration should be for the good of all students in all schools - free and not-for-profit.
Perhaps the reason my online networks seem to have grown is because, in many ways, there is a lack of commitment. Partnerships that require regular face-to-face meetings can be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain when you’re attempting to manage your day job and personal life in addition to them.
The ability to dip in and out and scale back is vital to these partnerships feeling supportive and exciting, rather than just another burden.
I firmly believe that collaborative work has the power to transform our professional practice. Now is the time to be brave, be authentic and find your own “team”.
Caroline Spalding is head of English at Tupton Hall School in Chesterfield. She tweets @MrsSpalding
