Praca zespołowa nauczycieli – od kultury indywidualizmu do kultury współdziałania

Abstract

The text is devoted to the problems of the work of teaching teams in Polish schools. The paper presents selected results of pedeutological research on teachers’ opinions on team cooperation at school in terms of organisational practices undertaken by a group of teachers in order to carry out jointly agreed tasks, the effective performance of which is associated with the awareness of the goal, specific standards and synergistic use of the competence potential of team members. The research was carried out using a survey in a group of teachers and school principals from the Mazowieckie voivodship. The results of the research show that the respondents appreciate the value of teamwork, although some of them have a fairly critical attitude to the implementation of assumptions in school practice. They see both positive and negative aspects of teamwork. They notice the symptoms of the isolation of the teacher’s work and the dominance of ways of thinking and acting, characteristic of the culture of individualism and competition. Others, on the other hand, express themselves very positively about teamwork in their home schools or treat “working behind closed doors” as a natural phenomenon, a manifestation of teaching autonomy, conducive to gaining self-confidence and a sense of professional security. Teachers and school principals presented their own suggestions for improving the quality of teamwork. The research made it possible to identify the potential of cooperation in teaching teams, which also allowed to expand the area of knowledge in the field of pedeutology. The collected research material and conclusions resulting from its analysis may – in the longer term – serve to improve educational practice.