Teacher collaboration: how conditions of accountability shape teachers’ autonomy, responsibilities, and relationships

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ABSTRACT This paper examines the dynamic relationship between accountability and autonomy by focusing on how a mandated curriculum framework in Victoria (Australia) has structured teachers’ daily practice and decisions. The Victorian Curriculum Planning and Reporting Guidelines require that teachers use a team approach to covering curriculum, and teachers must co-plan and teach in the ways determined by the team. An analysis of policy documents and teacher interviews shows how the curriculum mandate shapes how autonomy, discretion, and expertise can be exercised within one school. Specifically, the paper illustrates how curriculum—when enforced as part of broader conditions of accountability—produces particular types of relationships and responsibilities that are potentially contrived, rather than organic. In doing so, autonomy (individual and collective) is also contrived and not necessarily collegial, professional, or based on organic events or connections. At the same time, the role of each teacher is defined by what the curriculum framework demands, especially when it comes to how teams of teachers work together. Ultimately, the paper argues that collaboration and autonomy must be understood as part of the policy conditions that shape them.