Radical collegiality: Affirming teaching as an inclusive professional practice

Abstract

In trying to get to grips with the notion of collegiality in the context of the teaching profession four things are likely to strike the inquirer. Firstly, collegiality is invariably partnered with collaboration and the two terms are more often than not used interchangeably. Secondly, both are seen as hugely important. Thirdly, despite the fervour with which collegiality and collaboration are advocated, ironically, though perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out that the abundance of their virtues is matched by the scarcity of their realisation: we do not often manage to actually work in these desirable ways. This is not altogether surprising since, fourthly, there is little commonality or clarity about what it is we are all invited to understand and emulate: we do not agree on what collaboration and collegiality actually are. Even more worrying, our disagreements are more often than not the consequence of intellectual laziness. It is not that collaboration and collegiality are essentially contested concepts: rather, they are essentially confused concepts more likely to produce indifferent assent or evangelical agreement, depending on the values and dispositions of those involved. Judith Warren Little puts the matter well when she argues that: 'The term collegiality has remained conceptually amorphous and ideologically sanguine' (Little 1990b, p. 509). The still current fervour for collegiality is difficult to overplay. Prior to embarking on a searching critique of some of its more dubious manifestations, Andy Hargreaves observes that: