Paths of professional development: Contrived collegiality, collaborative culture, and the case of peer coaching

Abstract

The paper defines and analyses the differences between collaborative culture and contrived collegiality as forms of joint work and interaction among teachers. It uses the case of peer coaching, especially one variant known as technical coaching, to investigate and interpret these differences. Collaborative cultures comprise evolutionary relationships of openness, trust, and support among teachers where they define and develop their own purposes as a community. Contrived collegiality consists of administratively contrived interactions among teachers where they meet and work to implement the curricula and instructional strategies developed by others. Collaborative cultures foster teacher and curriculum development. Contrived collegiality enhances administrative control. Peer coaching of the technical kind, it is concluded, fosters implementation rather than development, education rather than training, contrived collegiality rather than collaborative culture.