Teacher teamwork - supportive cultures and coercive policies?

Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association, University of Exeter, England, 12-14 September 2002.Within school improvement strategies, teachers' teamwork is seen as crucial: policy changes seek to promote a new understanding of teachers working together in developing their school as an organisation, in processes of quality management such as peer observation, as well as teamwork in forms such as joint planning. New managerial approaches are calling for a culture change towards teamwork; recent reforms in education in many European countries are based on a new managerial ideology. This paper draws on research on the enactment of new managerial policies in primary schools in England and Switzerland, with a particular focus on teachers' teamwork. The research involved ethnographic fieldwork in a smaller and larger primary school in each country, as well as the analysis of relevant education policy. The findings from the four case studies allow contextualising new managerial policies in primary schools, revealing their inherent systemic contradictions and tensions in relation to teamwork. Educational reform in both countries resulted in teachers finding themselves negotiating contradictory pressures, ranging from experiences of culture changes towards more teamwork and an organisational culture supportive for school development, to increased competitiveness through policies of teacher performance management, and limited scope for individual professional approaches in teaching due to requirements such as joint planning within the school. Differences between England and Switzerland are examined in relation to differences in the emphasis of reform as well as traditions of teachers' professionalism and accountability