Project

Collaborating on Effective Teams in Senior Secondary Vocational Education (MBO)

8 March 2021 - 20 November 2023

Developing and delivering high-quality education is a team effort, and collective agency is a prerequisite for that effort. We define collective agency of a team as a well-functioning team capable of collective professional action.

Practical Approach for Team Improvement

The research focused on the conditions for the realization of collective agency and its impact on and improvement of educational practice. Six teacher teams, managers, and support services in two MBO institutions collaboratively developed interventions as "reflective practitioners," guided by the Team Professionalization research group (HvA) and the Vocational Education research group (HU).

Strong MBO teams are key to educational innovation and increase the opportunities for a future-proof society.

Stronger Teams for Better Education

The goal of this research was to gain insight into effective ways to strengthen collective agency and translate it into improvements in educational practice. Together with teachers, managers, and support staff, we explored "what works" in strengthening the collective agency of six MBO teacher teams. We also mapped how this agency contributes to the realization of improvement objectives in education through the joint development and implementation of interventions.

Results

It appears that teams play a central role in educational innovation, but the time required to shape changes is often underestimated. This is one of the conclusions of the research.

The research also shows that when basic conditions such as social safety and effective team collaboration are lacking, it is more difficult—or even impossible—to develop teams. Many teams also experience little time to reflect together on their own actions and functioning, and they often lack the freedom to truly redesign work.