The effect of school-leader support and participation in decision making on teacher collaboration in Dutch primary and secondary schools

Abstract

Over the last three decades, the concept of teacher collaboration has been embraced as a promising concept in the sphere of educational policy and educational research. Teacher collaboration is now considered crucial to strengthening the position of teachers, shaping their professional space and improving their professionalism. However, the concept of teacher collaboration lacks consensus: both its definitions and its purpose are the subject of discussion and criticism. Against this background, we present a theoretical and empirical analysis of teacher collaboration. We carried out secondary analyses on existing data from a large quantitative study conducted in primary schools (n ¼ 271) and secondary schools (n ¼ 343) to examine the extent to which teachers collaborate and to identify organizational characteristics and teachers' personal characteristics that affect teacher collaboration. The models we developed using structural equation modelling reveal that teacher collaboration in primary schools is influenced by the extent to which teachers perceive school-leader support, teachers' satisfaction concerning their participation in decision making and teachers' orientation towards student performance. The model for secondary schools is more straightforward: only perceived school-leader support directly influences teacher collaboration.

The effect of school leadership on implementing inclusive education: how transformational and instructional leadership practices affect individualised education planning

“…This result is in line with and empirically supports theoretical frameworks stressing collaborative processes and lesson development as main components of inclusive leadership (Blackmore 2006;Dorczak 2011;Dyson 2010;Kugelmass and Ainscow 2004). Moreover, it is in line with previous empirical studies investigating the relationship between leadership, collaboration and lesson development (Goddard et al 2015;Gumus, Bulut, and Bellibas 2013;Honingh and Hooge 2014;Pietsch et al 2016). With respect to transformational leadership the study showed, however, that the positive effect is only due to the positive impact transformational leadership had on the provision of structures for collaboration.…”

“…Two different, yet related, sets of leadership practices were focused: transformational leadership and instructional leadership. In line with prior research, we found medium to strong connections between school leadership and collaboration (Pietsch et al 2016;Honingh and Hooge 2014;Goddard et al 2015). However, we did not investigate the actual collaboration but the structures provided by the school leader for collaboration.…”

“…They found that instructional as well as transformational leadership had a significant positive effect on collaboration. Another study by Honingh and Hooge (2014) revealed a strong connection between perceived school leader support, that was operationalised using practices referring to transformational leadership, and collaboration among N = 614 teachers in Dutch primary and secondary schools. With respect to instructional leadership, Goddard et al (2015) found a strong connection to teacher collaboration.…”

Intelligent accountability in schools: A study of how school leaders work with the implementation of assessment for learning

“…In doing so, however, they abdicate as leaders (Hult et al 2016). It is difficult for teachers, who have busy days teaching students, to develop professionally without leader support and clear priorities and expectations (Honingh and Hooge 2014). Professional work develops through collective work and a joint knowledge base that also leaders adhere to.…”

Motivational Aspects of Teacher Collaboration

“…Honingh and Hooge (2014) claim that in past research, teacher collaboration has mostly been regarded as an intermediate variable, leading to a lack of evidence on both the extent to which teachers collaborate and the aspects that influence teacher collaboration (Honingh and Hooge, 2014). As a response, they carry out secondary data analyses on teacher collaboration in both primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands with the aim to analyze the extent to which "teachers in primary and secondary schools collaborate, and which school and teacher characteristics affect their collaboration" (Honingh and Hooge, 2014, p. 76).…”