Building a Culture of Collaboration in Schools

Article #1

Bib. Information
(APA Formatting):
Author(s) Affiliation:
Type of Resource:
(Scholarly
/Trade/Other)
Summary of essential
information:

Way in which this

source influences the

Sutton, P. S., & Shouse, A. W. (2016). Building a culture of collaboration in

schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 97(7), 69-73. doi:10.1177/0031721716641653
Sutton: Assistant Professor at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma Washington
Shouse: Chief Program Officer at Washington STEM, Seattle, Washington
This is a scholarly article representing research on a school building a
collaborative working environment
Key Points from the Author:
Teams worked together to solve specific problems
No clear leader- worked as equals with varying degrees of experience
and expertise
Sense of accountability and responsibility we
Changed school from a traditional school to one that uses PBL or
Problem Based Learning
Teachers enjoyed solving real problems with real children
Team structure and involvement:
o Principal was part of the team or teams
Characteristics of the Principal- open, transparent, candid
o Involved teachers in every facet of the school improvement
initiative
o Principal built a strong relationship with teachers by developing
a vision for the school improvement with them not for them
o Provided space and time to diagnose the problems
o Shared vision for how to address the issues
Redesigned professional learning
o Professional development was by the teachers
o It focused on problems of practice most relevant to other
teachers
o Deepened their expertise and established themselves as a
resource to other teachers
o Established teachers as instructional and pedagogical leaders
Efforts focused on how students learned and teachers teach
Collaboration worked because they charted long-term goals and
designed professional development experiences based on feedback from
teachers
This article gave insight on how to structure the collaborative groups. It also
helped to understand that nothing may be accomplished unless there are

field related to your

inquiry (ex. Math
teaching/learning
elementary)
Potential relevance to
your research topic
and study:

specific goal that we want to focus on as a collaborative group.

Stage of action
research where the
source will be used:

List all stages of the action research process where this source will be used
and briefly describe how it has informed your work.
Background-This article can give background information about teacher
collaboration and the different structures that can be used. I will most likely use
this article in the development background information as teacher collaboration
is discussed.
Findings/Conclusions-This article can be used to support or refute the findings
that I have in my research. This article concludes that if teachers and leaders
work together with common goals and vision, they can change the culture and
learning of the school. The findings of this article may be used in comparison of
my findings. This article can be used as a data source for effective
collaboration.
Implications/Action Planning- This article supports moving forward in
looking at teacher collaboration and its effectiveness. This article may be
referenced as we look to what practices we will change in the future. This
article will be used in determining the future action to be taken.

This article looked at collaboration in changing the culture of the school. I am

also looking at teacher collaboration as helping to change and cultivate the
culture of the school.