1 The social dimensions of teacher collegiality

One aspect of teachers ’ work lives rarely given consideration within educational research is that of social interaction with colleagues. While research focuses strongly on linking the collegial practices of teachers with student learning outcomes, the social benefits of teacher collegiality for teachers themselves is often neglected. In this article, I provide empirical data on the social interaction of teachers in a primary school and reveal their perceptions of the importance of such interaction. I provide an argument for incorporating a social dimension into existing concepts of teacher collegiality and posit that social interaction among colleagues maybe beneficial in two ways. First, social interaction may promote better working relationships, which in the longer term may improve the quality of teaching and learning. Second, positive social interaction may improve the emotional health of the staff community, thus reducing emotional stress and burnout. What may appear on the surface to be an immaterial part of a teacher’s workplace experience in terms of educational outcomes should be acknowledged as promoting significant individual and organisational benefits. Ask teachers what they like about their jobs, and invariably their responses revolve around their satisfaction, or lack of satisfaction, with human relationships; relationships with their students and/or colleagues. Interpersonal relationships in the workplace are extremely important to teachers, as they are for many other employees, but rarely do we read studies of the social dimensions of work in an educational setting. This article addresses this issue through an investigation of workplace relationships in an urban primary school, and the meanings that teachers attach to these relationships. Teaching is no longer the isolated profession it was once seen to be. With school-based management already an accepted reality in schools today, teachers’ work has expanded to include a significant component of non-teaching task