Factors Impeding Collaboration Sample Clauses

Factors Impeding Collaboration. Now, I intend to elaborate on the factors that inhibit teachers’ pro-active behaviour. According to one of the studies by Xxxxxxxxxx (1993), the main reason appears to be the fear of losing autonomy or being considered incompetent. Xxxxxx et al. (1981) and Xxxxxxx’x (1984) findings also confirmed that teachers do not try to seek help and support because they do not want to appear failures; in other words, personal freedom can be lost if teachers ask for someone else’s assistance at school. Taking the above findings into consideration, it can be concluded that the fear of losing autonomy causes many issues and insecurities to develop and is therefore a serious inhibiting factor for collaboration. Apart from the psychological factors which impede teacher collaboration, there are also physical factors (Xxxxxx, 1975). The latter depend on the conditions of the place of work. The typical working environment at a school is traditional and implies that teachers are divided into groups which exist in isolation from each other; the barriers to collaboration are then erected, and they are difficult to remove (Flinders, 1988). XxXxxxxxx (1989) contended with the authors, stating that ‘privatism’ can considerably hinder teachers’ collaboration. The conditions at the schools where privatism or individualism dominate usually put teachers in the mode of accountability; in fact, any initiated collaborative activity is discouraged. This factor can therefore create barriers among teachers that cannot be eradicated by teachers themselves. Xxxxxxxxxx (1994) explained that the above problem is exacerbated by a lack of communication between school leaders and teachers. In addition, he argued that boundaries are strong and the way both sides perceive time and work differ. For example, principals and heads devise plans with clear objectives and timelines expecting teachers to accomplish them as prescribed. However, the strategies on how to achieve the set goals successfully are not given to teachers. The studies conducted by Xxxxx and Xxxxxx (2013) discovered that teachers grappled with exploring collegial collaboration named a lack of time as the main reason. They stated that it is essential to have free time for discussions and reflections with colleagues. It appears that various bureaucratic tasks consume much of teachers’ time. To address this problem, school leaders should identify effective ways to reduce the paperwork burden that teachers carry. Another important impeding ...