An Exploration of Teacher and Staff Collaboration during Elementary School Action Teams

Abstract

Teacher collaboration has become an essential component of an elementary school. Student achievement, content area and pedagogy, and school relationships are some benefits that result from teacher collaboration. Five action teams (Staff Morale/Sunshine, Student Leadership, Technology, PBIS, and Clubs) are used at Stephens Elementary School to collaborate and accomplish goals for the school. This mixed methods study used a non-experimental descriptive design and examined the perspectives of 24 elementary teachers and staff regarding collaboration in their respective action teams. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from an online survey and analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis, a priori coding, and open coding. Analysis revealed themes of perceptions on collaboration in action teams, benefits of collaboration, barriers to collaboration, and suggestions for future collaboration. Findings from this study revealed implications for administrators and participants regarding action teams.