ONLINE WORKSPACES TO SUPPORT TEACHER COMMUNITIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

Introduction There are steadily expanding claims that teacher community contributes to the improvement in the practices of teaching and schooling (cf., Witziers et al., 1999; Little, 2003; Darling-Hammond and Bransford, 2005) as well as individual teacher development and the collective capacity schools (cf., Seashore Louis et al., 1996; Grossman et al., 2001; Imants et al., 2001; Achinstein, 2002; Piazza et al., 2009). In line with Grossman et al. (2001), we are interested in teacher community at the local level, where interaction, dialogue and trust are necessary elements of building cohesion. Based on the definition of community by Bellah et al (1985), we define a teacher community as ‘a group of teachers who are socially interdependent, who participate together in discussion and decision making, and share and build knowledge with a group identity, shared domain and goals, and shared interactional repertoire’. This means that we distinguish three core features of a teacher community: group identity, shared domain and goals, and shared interactional repertoire. These features refers to the nature of a community (group identity), what a community is about (shared domain), and how it functions (shared interactional repertoire). In a literature review of Brouwer et al. (in press), 31 design principles have been retrieved from the literature about the setup of efficient and effective teacher communities in schools. Examples of design principles are the promotion of interdependence, shared responsibility and individual accountability, the development of guidelines for dealing with conflicts and decision-making, and the consideration of group size and heterogeneity of expertise. The use of online workspaces might solve issues in communication and collaboration of school teachers as well as in establishing feelings of cohesion and trust –in addition to face-to-face interaction and collaboration. However, the problem is that we do not know how online workspace should be designed in order to efficiently and effectively communities of teachers in secondary school. Method and results A systematic review will be presented of online workspaces from the perspective of how teacher communities should be designed in order to effectively and efficiently support collaboration and communication of teachers in secondary schools. These tools includes tools for collaborative writing, file sharing, mind mapping, group communication, social networking, wikis and blogs, web presenting, whiteboarding, web and video conferencing, chat and instant messaging, and project management and event scheduling. Subsequently, online collaboration tools are evaluated on the way their functionalities potentially facilitate the design principles that have been worked out. Literature Achinstein, B. (2002), “Conflict amid community: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration”, Teacher College Record, Vol.104 No.3, pp.421-455. Bellah, R. N., Madsen, N., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S. M. (1985). Habits of the heart; Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of Calidofornia Press. Brouwer, P., Brekelmans, M., Nieuwenhuis, L., & Simons, P. R. J. (in press). Fostering teacher community development A review of design principles and a case study of an innovative interdisciplinary team. Learning Environments Research. Darling-Hammond, L. and Bransford, J. (Eds.) (2005), Preparing teachers for a changing world. What teachers should learn and be able to do, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Grossman, P., Wineburg, S., & Woolworth, S. (2001). Toward a theory of teacher community. Teacher College Record, 103, 942-1012. Imants, J., Sleegers, P. and Witziers, B. (2001), “The tension between sub-structures in secondary schools and educational reform”, School Leadership & Management, Vol.21, No.3, pp.289-307. Little, J. W. (2003), “Inside teacher community: representations of classroom practice”, Teachers College Record, Vol.105 No.6, pp.913-945. Piazza, P., McNeill, K.L. and Hittinger, J. (2009), “Developing a voluntary teacher community: The role of professional development, collaborative learning and conflict”, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April, San Diego, CA. Seashore Louis, K., Marks, H. and Kruse, S. (1996), “Teachers’ professional community in restructuring schools.” American Educational Research Journal, Vol.33 No.4, pp.757-798. Witziers, B., Sleegers, P. and Imants, J. (1999), “Departments as teams: functioning, variations and alternatives”, School Leadership & Management, Vol.19 No.3, pp.293- 304.