Discovering the Different Forms of Collaboration and Critical Friendships
Deconstructing Assumptions About Teacher Leadership
June 2024 marked the completion of my fifth year as a teacher. At that time, if you asked me to describe what it looks like to be a teacher leader, I would have laid out an elaborate and highly specific set of criteria. I used to believe that to be a teacher leader you needed to be executing a sophisticated array of data collection and analysis protocols, sharing your findings with your colleagues, and presenting oneself as an authority on a hot-button educational topic or cutting-edge teaching practice.
As part of the final year of my Knowles Fellowship, I was tasked with formulating my own inquiry topic related to teacher leadership. I began the school year feeling anxious and uncertain about conducting an inquiry that would produce insight into teacher leadership while also being authentic to my professional context. So, when I decided to explore the effects of peer observation on my teaching practice as the foundation of my inquiry, I envisioned a school year filled with me scheduling time to meet with my colleagues for in-depth conversations and debriefs about our respective practices. I also imagined acting on the results of these collaborative interactions and being able to immediately see improvement in the learning outcomes for my most challenging students.
Unsurprisingly, I encountered multiple setbacks that prevented this idealized vision from coming to fruition. Some of the obstacles were endemic to my school’s culture, while others are germane to teaching in high need urban public schools. However, while things did not go as I had initially planned, this inquiry turned out to be incredibly valuable to my growth and development as a teacher leader. My teacher leadership journey has helped me discover new ways of taking ownership of my learning, and to no longer take for granted the knowledge generated from the variety of informal interactions with my colleagues.
I used to believe that to be a teacher leader you needed to be executing a sophisticated array of data collection and analysis protocols. . .
My Inquiry Plan vs. The Reality
Originally, I wanted to set up peer observations, ask my colleagues for feedback, and debrief on these observations using the Data Analysis Protocol. Then, I would observe if and how the implementation of the feedback changed my teaching practice, hopefully for the better.
Despite my eagerness and the extensive planning I put into determining when and with whom these observations would take place, everything quickly unraveled once the reality of the school year hit. Between setting up classrooms, planning the first week of non-content related activities, and the myriad of other tasks that require time and energy, it became increasingly difficult to execute on my initial vision. In subsequent conversations, I learned that despite having more teaching experience, many of my colleagues experienced the same thing. Without dedicated time built into our schedules, we struggled to involve ourselves in any initiatives that were not directly tied to what was absolutely necessary to complete the minimum day-to-day requirements.
In the midst of my feelings of disappointment over the lack of peer observations and the feeling of overwhelm from my normal teaching responsibilities, I still took the time to have regular “check-in” conversations with my colleagues. In particular, I regularly spoke with my colleagues Ms. B and Mr. S, who were the other two Algebra II teachers. Ms. B is a 7th-year teacher and graduated of the high school where we teach, so she has deep connections with the students and members of the surrounding community. Mr. S is a Russian immigrant who has been teaching for 23 years. Other than the two sections of Algebra II, he also teaches two sections of Pre-Calculus and the only AP Calculus class our school offers.
Whether it was passing one another in the hallway, waiting at the copy machine, or running into them in the teachers’ lounge; I used the opportunity to speak with Ms. B and Mr. S about how things were going in our respective Algebra II classrooms. During these brief conversations, we compared what lesson or unit we were on and shared quick anecdotes about our students’ understanding and performance with the content. Mr. S regularly came into my classroom to have informal conversations about whatever problem was on my whiteboard. At the time, I was not intentionally tying these interactions into my inquiry analysis, yet they were providing me with valuable data to implement in my classroom.
Pivoting to PLCs
In late November, frustrated by what seemed to be a lack of progress on completing a successful data collection process, I attempted to pivot my inquiry focus. I decided to try to leverage my weekly grade-level PLC (professional learning community) meetings as an opportunity for more formalized collaboration. One of our standard topics was to review students who had been placed on our MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) for various behavioral issues. I decided to focus the peer observations on one specific student from the MTSS list. I wanted to observe my colleagues from the PLC implementing MTSS with this student in each other’s classes, share how we are addressing struggles, and learn from each other how to best support students.
Unfortunately, the agendas of our PLC meetings were packed with district-level and school-level mandatory administrative tasks. This left little to no time to speak with my colleagues about anything else. However, after the meetings, I would get the chance to speak freely with a colleague or two who were headed in the same direction.
One of the most memorable conversations happened while I was waiting on the elevator with Ms. A, a social studies teacher. We started discussing a student from the MTSS list that we both taught. My relationship with this student started off rough and improved as the school year went on, but they had recently begun to shut down again. Ms. A told me about a loss in the student’s family, which might explain the change. For my part, I told Ms. A about the success I had with the student after I strategically chose their groupmates. Over the next few days, I began doing informal social-emotional check-ins with the student. While these were not met warmly at first, the student eventually began opening up. At the end of the PLC meeting, Ms. A said she had taken my grouping suggestion and had begun to see some improvement in their interactions. Despite this, I still was not viewing this conversation as part of my inquiry work. Therefore, I continued looking for another way to generate data from a structured collaborative interaction with my colleagues.
Discovering The Importance of Observation Through a “Peer Lens”
In January, I decided to ask our School Based Teacher Leader (SBTL) for mathematics to observe me and provide feedback. Our Math SBTL is a fellow teacher with over 15 years of teaching experience. In their capacity as an SBTL, this teacher is always willing to support me and the other math teachers at the school. When we spoke, I asked the SBTL to stop by any of my classes whenever they were available, and she agreed to do so without any hesitation. In addition to their SBTL work as an instructional coach, they also teach one section of Algebra I. At the time, I felt this would be a suitable example of peer collaboration since it was not tied to a high-stakes supervisory evaluation.
I realized that the correlation to my colleagues’ own teaching practices is what made their feedback richer and more actionable than the structured feedback that comes from a supervisory evaluation.
The SBTL observed one of my most challenging Algebra II sections, and we sat down the next day to debrief their observations. They shared written and verbal notes organized in a formal evaluation matrix. As a result, rather than a relaxed free flowing conversation, our debrief was more of a one-sided discussion filled with formal observation language. It became clear to me that they were basing their feedback off of a checklist of behaviors or actions that the teacher should “perform”. I realized that since I had not provided the SBTL with a specific ask for informal observation, I had given them the wrong idea about what I wanted to get from this interaction.
Their formalized observation, while helpful, lacked the organically informative insight that the informal interactions with Ms. B, Mr. S, and Ms. A provided. Most importantly, the SBTL’s feedback did not include any correlation to their own teaching practice. After reviewing their notes with my inquiry group, I realized that the correlation to my colleagues’ own teaching practices is what made their feedback richer and more actionable than the structured feedback that comes from a supervisory evaluation. It also occurred to me that observation is not always the best way to get insight into a fellow teacher’s practice. Some teachers communicate more freely and openly about their practice when the traditional supervisory connotations of observation are removed.
Discovering What Teacher Leadership Means to Me
After this realization, I gained a greater appreciation for all of those brief informal discussions I had been having with my colleagues throughout the school year. What started off, in my mind, as inconsequential interactions that generated actionable insights by happenstance, were now invaluable interactions that I began to intentionally seek out. During the last week of school, Mr. S, who I respect immensely, came into my classroom and asked for advice on rolling out the final topic of the school year. This moment caught me completely by surprise, but as I gave it more thought, it began to make sense. As the school year progressed, Mr. S found our sporadic one-off conversations helpful to the development of his practice, just as much as I had found his insights added to the development of mine. Later that same week, he and I sat down for a longer discussion on the lessons and skills from our Algebra II curriculum that served our students moving into Pre-Calculus. This mutual exchange of knowledge and ideas embodied what it means to me to be a teacher leader.
Through the inquiry process, I discovered that teacher leaders should not see collaboration as a finite set of actions that have to be executed within a static framework. Teacher leaders recognize that effective collaboration is a fluid ongoing process that can take many different forms. As long as we are engaging with our colleagues, and demonstrating an intellectual curiosity about our respective practices, we are engaging in collaboration. As teacher leaders we should monitor and track the effects that come out of any actions we take based on colleague interactions. My inquiry helped me recognize that I have been far more effective at exhibiting the principles and habits of teacher leadership than I ever imagined.
Citation
Vincent, K. (2026). Discovering the different forms of collaboration and critical friendships. Kaleidoscope: Educator Voices and Perspectives, 13(1), URL NEEDED.