Teachers' experiences of afterschool collaboration: an evaluation of collaboration design

This research sought to understand teachers’ experiences with a voluntary collaborative design called Afterschool Collaboration (ASC) for the purposes of evaluating the design and making recommendations for future ASCs. There are many designs for collaboration, each with similar strengths and weaknesses regarding their ability to facilitate learning that translates into changed beliefs and classroom practices. To gather rich data and capture the essence of teachers’ perspectives on their experiences with ASC, phenomenological interviews (Creswell & Poth, 2017) were conducted with six participants at the same school. The findings revealed many tensions between structure and purpose, leaving most participants questioning the value of participating in ASC. Missing from the participants’ perceptions of ASC was leadership: Leadership to shepherd people towards a shared vision, and to nurture and sustain a sense of community. The data suggest that future ASC might benefit from an investment in teacher-leadership.