Teachers’ Collegiality: A Professional Development Tool for Algerian Novice Teachers

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: This research aims to discover the role of collegiality, as one of the internationally recognized tools for continuous professional development, in the professional growth journey of both novices and experts to give an insight into how effective, forming and maintaining healthy positive relationships, is to novice teachers per se. Methods: The research used a mixed-method approach to investigate the research questions. It included 18 teachers from the Department of English, Blida2 University; 8 novices, and 10 experts. The research used two questionnaires; one dedicated to novices to discover the role of collegiality in their professional development and the second one to experts to investigate the contribution of collegiality in their journey of professional growth and skill development. Results: In line with the data gathered, the results indicate that teachers’ collegiality is reasonably favorable by novices and highly recommended by expert teachers. Discussion: Novices tend to maintain positive relationships in the workplace as they believe they would expand their knowledge and skills repertoire and help them cope with the exhaustive emotional turmoil of stress and discomfort the new profession’s burden unfolds on them. Expert teachers, despite expressing not having benefitted particularly from collegiality in their professional development journey, tend to support and advocate for it for novice teachers today. They also tend to see themselves as responsible for the various pedagogical and psychological help they provide for novices to facilitate the challenging journey they face. Limitations: Despite its general concern among all teachers from different fields, the research was limited to a convenient sample from the Department of English, Blida2 Lounici Ali University. Conclusions: The research on collegiality adds to the literature on continuous professional development tools and is informative to teachers of all levels to invest in their collegial relationships for the pedagogical and psychological accompaniment of novice teachers per se.