Collaborating with colleagues and other professionals

Collaborative partnerships can take place between two or more teachers, or can include professionals such as school psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, school nurses, and social workers. Genuine professional collaboration is built on relationships that foster trust, reciprocity, and focus on student learning and participation in inclusive education. In this chapter, we define what professional collaboration is and describe activities that can be undertaken in collaborative partnerships. The benefits of collaboration, to both professionals and students, are described, such as support to enact high-quality teaching practices, targeted professional learning for the stakeholders involved, and high-quality education experience for students, are unpacked. Finally, we discuss how systems and school leaders can support professional collaboration to exist in systems and schools and share case examples that demonstrate what can be achieved through collaboration.