Teachers\u27 and management understanding and practices of teamwork in school

Every year educational institutes invest a lot of money on education. Various approaches and techniques are being used to enhance the quality of education in order to meet the requirements of the revolutionary developing world. Teachers\u27 teamwork is supposed to be an effective effort towards meeting those needs, by developing teachers\u27 knowledge and skills and by sharing their experiences with each other. A number of studies have been conducted in the western countries on teachers\u27 teamwork. Therefore, this study was conducted in a community private English medium school in Karachi, to find out teachers and management practices and understanding of teachers teamwork. The study undertook two teaching teams, one in the primary section and another in secondary section, and one team of coordinators (academic council), which is a decision making body as well as deals with teachers and classroom teaching. The study explores how teamwork helps teachers enhance their personal and professional knowledge by providing them a collaborative environment. It also explains how the school structure and the required elements, resources, time and professional development opportunities help in this regard. Even though it is a management structure, yet is seem to be fruitful for teachers to build up their trust and relation with each other, which are supposed to provide baseline for teachers\u27 professional growth by bringing their tacit beliefs and assumptions to the surface. It also highlights some factors influencing effective teamwork, for example, influence of the team leader/coordinator, not having clear rules to be followed, unawareness of the purpose/vision for the team and role ambiguity of the members of the academic council. The study also recommends some suggestions for improving the quality of teamwork as well as recommends further studies in this field to be explored