‘Feeling Equal’: Exploring the navigation and negotiation of team teaching among student teachers and cooperating teachers during a school placement experience

In Ireland, mentoring of student teachers during school placement operates on the informal basis of goodwill, leading to inconsistent experiences for those involved. It has been acknowledged that mentoring and team teaching have drawn a close correlation as a valued practice with favourable learning outcomes. Subsequently, team teaching may be a potential alternative professional learning mechanism, enhancing the quality of school placement experiences for those involved. However, team teaching is not withstanding its implications, rooted in the realms of power, exchanged between cooperating teachers and student teachers through specific interactions. This challenges the development of relationships along with the potential learning experience. As a result, this study explores the navigation of team teaching among student teachers and cooperating teachers during their first school placement experience.

This small-scale, cross-sectional study was carried out over two phases of data collection and included a total of 20 participants, comprising of post-primary level student teachers and cooperating teachers. A transformative paradigm was employed within this study, incorporating a number of qualitative data collection methods, including focus group interviews, reflective writing entries, online questionnaires and narrative interviews. The findings from phase one highlighted the intricate nature of the student teacher-cooperating teacher dyadic relationship and warranted further empirical and theoretical exploration, informing the development of phase two. In order to enable a rich insight into the exchange and navigation of power within the student teacher-cooperating teacher relationships, this led to the theoretical grounding of the study, which comprised of a synthesis of the Foucauldian lens of power and a Habermasian informed understanding of deliberative democracy.

The findings of the study offer valuable insights into student teachers and cooperating teachers understanding and navigation of team teaching embedded within the contextual landscape to which their experiences are bound. Interestingly, during the team teaching experience, all stakeholders involved are bound by evident inequities. At a macro level, there is insufficient clarity and enactment surrounding policy documentation, which leads to a lack of comprehensive oversight by school leaders at a mezzo level along with inadequate resourcing, led by performativity expectations. This ultimately leaves the student teacher unsupported and the cooperating teacher unrecognised at a micro level where there is a lack of time and recognition for those involved. The navigation of student teachers and cooperating teachers’ specific interactions and negotiations of operating within this school placement context in Ireland informs the potential for enhanced initial teacher education practices. This encourages thoughtful contemplation about how collaborative practices can empower, or hinder, educators and learners through interactions, debating an equitable and enriching educational experience for those involved. In conclusion, it also offers valuable future implications, informing the expansion, development and enactment of research, policy and practice within the Irish education landscape.