#edchat vs. Meeting After School: Dealing with Contrived Collaboration


“Administrators can challenge the restrictive culture of teacher isolation and individualism, but inadvertently eradicate all semblances of creativity and individuality with it.” -Hargreaves-


In 1994, Andy Hargreaves produced a proper 'How to' manual on teacher collaboration titled Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers' Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age. Detailing obvious and not so apparent requirements for teachers to truly work together, Hargreaves refers to teacher collaboration as either 'a cup of comfort or poisoned chalice'. Nearly twenty years after publication, this seminal work has spawned countless initiatives full of well intentions. My present school board deserves to be commended with implementing models as such, from peer coaching to 'job embedded professional development' teacher leaders, attempting to commit to a task-NOT-a commitment to a time. We have not, as a system, achieved many goals in regards to authentic collaboration, the majority of teachers feel they have 'received' yet another initiative.


Enter Myrna Cooper:

"Who's culture is it anyway? If teachers are told what to be professional about, how, where, and with whom to collaborate and what blueprint of professional conduct to follow, then the culture that evolves will be foreign to the setting. They will once again have "received" a culture."

 True collaborative cultures (according to Hargreaves groundbreaking work) are: spontaneous, voluntary, development-oriented, and most importantly, pervasive across time and space. Contrived collaboration is: administratively-oriented, compulsory and most importantly, implementation-oriented. #edchat and other online collaboration platforms seem to fit all of the procedures mentioned above; moreover, I can attest the fierce engagement of these digital platforms wonderfully avoid any stigma of contrived collaboration.

 I cannot say it enough to colleagues, twitter = engagement not consumption, Lisa Nielsen of Innovative Educator fame produced a handy manual of both online personal learning networks and global influence, in order to detail what are the online personal learning networks.

 I commonly witness a student full of intrinsic motivation; however, see extrinsic motivation rule a teachers decisions. Online personal learning networks have tremendous potential to reach and respect a teachers professionalism.

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