Collaboration ≠ Cooperation

“The nature of relationships among the adults within a school has a greater influence on the character and quality of that school and on student accomplishment than anything else.” — Roland S. Barth

As adults in schools, we strive to help our students develop strategies to manage their interpersonal relationships. Relationships amongst the faculty are equally important, and as educators, we need our own set of tools to successfully work with our colleagues. Schools ask teachers to work in a variety of collaborative models such as lead/associate, co-teaching, teaching teams, committee work, classroom teacher/specialists. Further, these teachers/staff bring different perspectives and come from different backgrounds and generations, resulting in misunderstandings, misaligned expectations of each other, and different relationship styles.

How can we cultivate tools to transform collegial relationships into collaborative ones? Just as schools encourage the development of classrooms that are responsive and attuned to the needs of our studen…