Finished beginnings: Finding space for time in collaborative teacher practice

Abstract

The design of Modern Learning Environments (MLEs) in New Zealand primary schools follows a global shift in thinking about the relationships between pedagogy and space. MLEs that deliberately group larger cohorts of teachers and students signal a spatial intentionality for teacher collaboration. This study focuses on the nature of that collaboration and the impact on the professional work of teachers, both at the interface with students and behind the scenes. The study is being completed in three phases. The first phase consists of interviews with selected educational leaders across New Zealand to identify key themes as well as potential research sites. This builds on the notion of Reputational Site Selection (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984; LeCompte & Schensul, 2010), as well as the practice of identifying and examining practice in exemplar learning environments (Blackmore et al., 2010; OECD, 2013). Subsequently a set of snapshot case studies will be conducted in six primary schools, with data collected through observations, semi-structured interviews with principals, and focus groups of teachers and students. Three schools will then be selected for in-depth case studies (Stake, 1995), with data collected through field journal observations, interviews and documentation. Initial analysis taken from the first phase of the study indicates that as schools move to occupy new spaces and inhabit them on an ongoing basis, emergent issues for teachers and leaders are concerned less with the spatial and instead with the relational, temporal, and organisational dimensions. Effective teacher collaboration in MLEs takes time, negotiation and ongoing systemic support, and is shaped and reshaped over time. While geographical proximity may present opportunities for teachers, it also presents complex challenges at a professional, social, cultural and cognitive level. This paper illuminates some of this emerging complexity and supports the notion that although MLEs potentially provide a catalyst for change, the newly built environment presents schools and teachers with a ‘finished beginning’: a starting point from which adaptations to support successful teaching and learning can occur.