Abstract
This paper aims to measure the degree of teacher-teacher and teacher-principal collaborations, in the public schools of Albanian educational pre-university system, and a second aim is to evaluate the relationship, - if any exists, - between those collaborations and school performance, too. The study has quantitative nature and is based on a questionnaire with 13 articles. The questionnaire is compiled by the author, based on the literature. The questionnaire is with self-report, based on the perceptions that teachers have regarding those collaborations. It is fulfilled by teachers, in-service full time, that teach at 20 public schools in the pre-university educational system in Albania, respectively in Tirana, Kamëz, Elbasan and Shkodra. The schools were chosen based on the performance criteria: schools with highest performance and schools with lowest performance. Teacher-teacher collaboration is evaluated through 7 articles (N=7, Cronbach’s Alpha=.802); teacher-principal collaboration is evaluated through 6 articles (N=6, Cronbach’s Alpha=.812). For symmetry reasons, the questionnaires for evaluation of both collaborations are constructed in similar manner, based on the philosophy of councils that teachers and principals give and take with each-other. Teachers’ self‐reported collaboration was measured by a scale from 1 to 5 (Never 1; Rarely 2; Sometimes 3; Often 4; Always 5). The data are analysed through SPSS. According to data, teachers report a higher scale of collaboration with their colleagues and a lower scale of collaboration with their principals: teacher-teacher collaboration is higher for issues related with students’ behaviour and lower for issues related with the school curricula or school aims; teacher-principal collaboration is higher for issues related with students’ behaviour and lower for issues related with their profession. From the data, there is not any statistically significant difference between level of collaboration and school performance, which stands for the high degree of teacher atomization at school. One important conclusion is that principals have a small portion of decision-making for important issues that influence directly school performance.
Highlights
Teachers report a higher scale of collaboration with their colleagues and a lower scale of collaboration with their principals: teacher-teacher collaboration is higher for issues related with students’ behaviour and lower for issues related with the school curricula or school aims; teacher-principal collaboration is higher for issues related with students’ behaviour and lower for issues related with their profession
There is not any statistically significant difference between level of collaboration and school performance, which stands for the high degree of teacher atomization at school
Because the institution of school principal in Albanian public school is unstable and most of people in this position are with political background, - they usually have the same cycle with that of the elections
Summary
Inspectorial State of Educational, in a 2013 report (IShA, 2013:15) about school ethical climate in some Albanian public schools, found that in one of school inspected: “There is no collaboration at all between the school principal and its deputy. For this reason, deputy principal was excluded from the participation process of compiling the yearly school program and was excluded too, from exercising her duties. Deputy principal was excluded from the participation process of compiling the yearly school program and was excluded too, from exercising her duties This fact is reflected in a deep dysfunction of school staff.”. Studying how collaborations work out at our schools today and trying to measure it, are a very good way to encourage a critical thinking about the perspective
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