The impact of mandated collaboration in the workplace: a case study of Ethiopian primary school teachers

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores how implementing mandated collaboration in the workplace impacts teachers’ professional practices based on the experience of primary school teachers in Ethiopia. The study adopted a constructivist orientation, which prompted the use of qualitative methods of inquiry, and data were collected through eighteen one-to-one interviews and three focus group discussions (FGDs). The findings indicated that implementing mandated teacher collaboration might be helpful in the early stages of teacher collaboration as a starter from which a voluntary and authentic collaborative culture emerges, yet it is not necessarily a good thing once collaborative practices are well initiated. That means, despite its potential for fostering teacher professional learning, mandated collaboration can be a threat to the professional autonomy of teachers; it can also intensify conflict, nurture groupthink, and promote social loafing among teachers.