Types and Features of Teacher Collaboration. The following section of my literature review is devoted to the types and forms of collaboration in education to identify what the research to date has focused on, and it also touches upon theories that can help me design my study’s theoretical or conceptual framework. Xxxx, Xxxxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx (1989) suggested that the core values of collaboration among educators are trust, support and open mindedness. Xxxxxxxxxx (1989) named two forms of school culture: the first one is moving schools, where learning, support and interaction among teachers are the key features; and the second is stuck schools, where teachers are confined to their classrooms and feel alienated. The authors’ findings make perfect sense because effective collaboration requires positive values and culture which should be cultivated at schools and shared among individuals. Turning now to Xxxxxxxxxx’x (1994) five forms of collaboration, which are isolation or individualism, collaboration, balkanisation and a ‘‘moving mosaic’’ (p. 239), he examined collaborative cultures by analysing the relationships between teachers and their co-workers. Let us first discuss Isolation or Individualism, which has been criticised by several researchers and labelled as negative (Hargreaves, 1994). However, Xxxxxxxxxx (1994) believed that working alone can sometimes be positive. He gives an example of some teachers planning more effectively on their own than in a group. He, therefore, outlined three types of individualism: 1) ‘constrained individualism’ means that teachers are forced to work individually due to restrictive organisational structures; 2) ‘strategic individualism’ means that teachers choose to work individually; and 3) ‘elective individualism’ means that working together or individually is dictated by situations (p. 172). Over two decades ago, Xxxxxxxx (1988) identified the same types of individualism and defined them similarly. This coincidence indicates that the studies of the two researchers may be reliable and are based on the rich data collected at schools. The second type is collaboration or collaborative culture, which is described by Xxxxxxxxxx (1994) as being spontaneously initiated by teachers when a need arises or an idea occurs while being sometimes supported by school leadership, being voluntary and having no pressure from above, being professional development orientated, happening anytime and anywhere and having no predictable outcomes. It appears that his type of collaboration can ...
