When a teaching team is both harmonious and creative, their resulting work with children can seem to be magical. The efforts of some groups may well be synergistic, while others are not.  Extraordinary results do not happen automatically! Without continual care, and hard work, team teaching is likely to be mediocre or even dysfunctional.  A commitment to nurturing the process, and insuring emotional safety must come not only from above, from administrators, but also from within the team, from each and every member of the faculty.

  

 When a team or an entire educational community thrives, it is because the members of the group work with each other from positions of genuine respect, and always make an effort to see the other person’s perspective. This is particularly critical when they encounter the inevitable differences of opinion. Enthusiasm for one’s position is appropriate, but power struggles are not.  If ideas are frequently dismissed, ignored or worst of all, if people are attacked on a personal level, the creative process within the group will be seriously damaged or even destroyed.

 Because we do not teach in a traditional manner, our work with children requires a great deal of unlearning, and restraint. We often have to stop ourselves from correcting a misconception. If we as researchers are committed to seeing where something leads rather than yielding to the temptation to steer an exploration too much, we will be far less likely to fall into petty power struggles and rivalries.  A similar kind of stepping back from a situation, and waiting can be used in our work with each other. There is a huge difference between feeling compelled to compromise, and forced to abandon something you believe in, and feeling more open because you have come to understand and appreciate another perspective.

One of the best examples of relinquishing control comes to us directly from the ultimate source in Reggio. When Loris Maliguzzi felt serious reservations about the then young atelierista Vea Vecchi’s plan to work on self portraits with the children, he did not forbid her to embark on the exploration. Instead he clearly and carefully explained why he believed that it might create frustrations for some children. He then left it up to her to approach the project in a way which minimized that risk.  The two greatest obstacles to genuine, creative collaboration are traditional, top down management, and teacher rivalry.