Both artists and scientists find collaboration essential to their development and craft. Since teaching is a mix of both, it should take its cues from the values of meaningful rather than surface-level collaboration with colleagues.
My CTQ colleague Marsha Ratzel pointed me to this post by Ewan McIntosh that claims, “Collaboration is the key influence in the quality of teaching.” At the same time, he argues that most collaboration doesn’t work.
In my experience, collaboration works because teachers who engage in meaningful—not surface-level—collaboration are part of an intellectual community of teachers, even if that community involves primarily just a few people. Teaching is both art and science. Looking to both those disciplines, we can see that very few scientists or artists would really be successful without being involved in communities built around the work being done in their fields.
Scientists know other scientists work and build on it. It’s not about, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we worked together on this project so we can say we worked together?” It’s more like, “Hey, didn’t you try something with this type of material in this type of environment before? How did it turn out, and what would you recommend I use for my project?” Scientists benefit from one another’s experiences and thinking. This sharing happens both in person and through the reading and writing of articles and research studies in the field.
Artists I know are interested in other people’s art and build on one another’s ideas, both intentionally and without realizing it. There’s a conscious discourse going on among artists and including art critics. Artists inspire and support one another, even though they often make their actual art alone.
Teaching in a collaborative setting has teachers work in relation to one another in discussion, sharing of experience, resources, criticism, failures and possibilities. As long as we have a means to communicate, we do it naturally because we share common ground and we are interested in exploring our differences.
[image credits: nature.com, greenprophet.com]
Share this post:
Author
Ariel Sacks
Ariel Sacks began her 13-year teaching career in New York City public schools after earning her master’s degree at Bank Street College and has taught and coached in grades 7-9. She is the author of Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2014) and writes a teaching column for Education Week Teacher.
Ariel’s work as a teacher leader with the Center for Teaching Quality involved her in co-authoring Teaching 2030: What We Must Do For Our Public Schools – Now and in the Future. She was also featured in the CTQ book Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead Without Leaving.
She is currently working on a book about the role of creative writing in equitable, 21st century schools, and she speaks and leads workshops on the whole novels approach.
Related Posts
September 13, 2021
Pause, ponder, then plan:
Cultivating Communities of Impact
February 23, 2021