ABSTRACT
Belief in the power and wisdom of school collaboration over working in isolation is widespread (da Costa and Riordan, 1996; DiPardo, 1996; Fullan and Hargreaves, 1991; Rottier, 1996). Collaboration is the cornerstone of many educational reforms including school restructuring, site-based management, school councils, shared decision-making, and team teaching (da Costa and Riordan, 1996). Collaborative practice in schools is said to occur when teachers and administrators work together, share their knowledge, contribute ideas and develop plans for the purpose of achieving educational and organizational goals (Cavanagh and Dellar, 1996). Increasingly, however, there is recognition that the mere presence of collaborative structures, while important, does not guarantee that a culture of collaboration exists (Fullan and Hargreaves, 1991, p. 52). If collaboration does not rest solely on a school’s infrastructure being designed for team interaction and participative decision-making, then what else might facilitate collaborative practice? A difficult question to answer, for while much is written about the problems of teacher isolation (DiPardo, 1996), little is known about ‘what happens when teachers work closely together’ (p. 110).
