I Get By With A Little Help...

Colleague Support in Schools

Bill Rogers draws on his experience as a teacher, researcher and educational consultant to emphasize that colleague support can, and does, make a difference to individual teachers and to the whole school cultures. He highlights the personal and relational aspects of colleague support, including moral support, structural support and professional support. In particular, he uses the voices of teachers and case studies to illustrate the moral, structural and professional dimensions of colleague support.

Bill Rogers shows how colleague support can affect wellbeing, professional esteem and professional coping. He asks the questions:

• What makes colleague support effective and why?
• Who initiates support and how?
• How does such support affect personal coping and the ability to manage the day-to-day grind of teaching?
• How does colleague support affect longer term issues such as professional feedback, appraisal of teaching, curriculum planning, lesson planning?
• How does it affect ongoing concerns such as classroom discipline and behavior management?
• How does colleague support affect the impact and management of change?