Teams in Schools:Looking Below the Surface

The development of teams is an increasingly popular approach to participation and restructuring in schools. Moves towards team approaches are driven by two metaphors. The first is the market metaphor which calls on schools to become more flexible and adaptable. The second is the collaboration metaphor which values participation, collegiality,empowerment, shared leadership and professionalism at a school level. Intertwined with both is a growing acceptance that student outcomes and teaching and learning must drive school decisions and structures. For teams to become a meaningful form of collaboration and not simply a cosmetic adjustment to meet managerial ends, schools, and particularly principals, need to rethink power relationships and the meaning of leadership in schools. They need to reconsider current school structures and cultures and how they can be changed or developed to accommodate team approaches and shared power. Principals must be willing to break down traditional processes and rebuild them to achieve congruence with teams and teamwork.