It Takes Two to Make a Good Thing Right: Examining the Dynamics Among Teaching Teams in Head Start Classrooms

Teams in the workplace are common across numerous industries, including healthcare, communications, service and education. In education, teaching teams are fundamental features in school success. Teaching teams are the norm in early childhood classrooms; however, few studies have explored the teaching team dynamics and identified the effective practices that promote collaboration within the classroom, even though preliminary research suggests a possible relationship between team dynamics and classroom quality, which in turn promotes children’s overall school readiness. This study addresses the gap in the literature by exploring the relationships between teachers and teacher assistants that comprise Head Start teaching teams. The study examined the psychometric properties of a measure of teaching team dynamics, identified profiles of teaching teams in Head Start classrooms, and examined the relationships between teachers’ demographic and their team dynamics. Results indicate a two-factor structure for measuring team dynamics. Most teams were aligned in their reports of team dynamics. However, there were no significant relationships between teacher characteristics and team dynamics, possibly due to the social desirability and positive bias attached to rating co-working dynamics