The nature of teacher support groups

In Chapter 1we stressed the importance of collaborating with other teachers in professional development. In this chapter we will examine how teachers can set up a support group with colleagues and the goals of this form of collaboration. A teacher support group can be defined as two or more teachers collaborating to achieve either their individual or shared goals or both on the assumption that working with a group is usually more effective than working on one's own. Typically, a support group will involve a group of teachers meeting to discuss goals, concerns, problems, and experiences. The group provides a safe place where teachers can take part in such activities as collaborating on curriculum and materials development, and review, plan, and carry out activities such as peer coaching, team teaching, action research, and classroom observation. At the same time, in a support group teachers get to know their colleagues better and begin to function as a community of professionals rather than as individuals working in isolation from each other. Teacher support groups, as Lieberman and Grolnick (1998, p. 723) point out, play a major role in “providing opportunities for teachers to validate both teacher knowledge and teacher inquiry.”

A support group, however, is not a staff meeting or an in-service activity such as a workshop. It should not become just another opportunity to discuss school problems and policies and personnel or administrative matters (Birchak et al., 1998). Because a support group is a voluntary activity and does not include all teachers, it is not an appropriate forum to discuss or resolve matters that affect the whole school.