Conducting Educational Research

CHAPTER 2
Collaboration is not a precise area of study. For the dual purpose of completing
this research project and supporting the work of our staff members, my part will be
to work with the Instructional Leadership Team to further staff awareness of the
importance of and benefits gained from collaboration. Also, considering the conversations
that our instructional leadership team had at our year-end retreat, I will be
looking at the comfort level of the Instructional Leadership Team in fostering
collaboration among the teaching staff. We will be able to engage successfully in
collaboration if the staff does not become caught up in the traditional style of
individualistic teaching and focuses instead on cooperative teaching. The success
of our effort to foster collaboration will be enhanced if our teaching staff respects
the initiatives of the Instructional Leadership Team. If the staff buys into the
initiative of our leadership team, collaboration among teaching staff will grow.
How comfortable is the Instructional Leadership Team in fostering collaboration
among staff members in our school?
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DEFINITIONS:
I decided to use da Costa & Riodan’s (1998) definition of collaboration: “work
done among two or more teachers in a climate of trust and openness to scrutiny and
criticism” (p. 3)
Instructional Leadership Team is a group comprised of teaching staff representing
various curricula areas or specialized areas that role is to provide leadership in the
area of instruction.