A Strengths-Based Approach to Increasing Collaboration, Efficacy, and Leadership Among Teachers

• In Event: Leading in Diverse Cultures

Abstract

This research examines a strengths-based professional development for Communities of Practice created to support teachers to engage in more collaborative relationships and highly functioning teams so as to foster greater creativity, open-minded thinking, and problem solving focused on student learning. By creating a space for teachers to use the variety of strengths that each person brings to the school site and allowing these strengths to complement each other in the workplace, the idea of strengths-based collaboration can be extended to the school site to provide dynamic learning communities where teachers can engage one another on an equal playing field with a focus on student learning taking center stage. Three topic descriptors: communities of practice; teacher self and collective efficacy; strengths-based strategies

Authors

• Lori Rhodes, Sonoma State University

• Tina Marie Rasori, University of California - San Diego

• Jean Walker