Interprofessional Collaboration on School Teams
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Date
2011-09-16
Authors
Stern, Evelyn
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
Teams that help develop programs and supports for children with exceptional
educational needs are required in some school boards in Canada and most school boards
in the U.S (Andrews & Lupart, 2000; Truscott, Cohen, Sams, Sanborn, & Frank, 2005).
Program Planning teams - or Prereferral Intervention Teams - often require a high degree
of cooperation among people who may have very different training and perspectives
(Hall, 2005; Jantsch, 1972). There is very little research on interprofessional
collaboration on school teams and most of the research is out-dated (Margison & Shore,
2009). On school teams and teams in healthcare, the following have been found to
influence the outcomes of interprofessional collaboration: communication, roles, status,
attitude towards collaboration, and professionals’ paradigms (Choi & Pak, 2007; Mostert,
1996). We need a better understanding of the influences on collaboration on school
teams. The purpose of this thesis is to explore team members’ perceptions of how they
work together on interprofessional school teams, as well as their perceptions of barriers
and facilitators to interprofessional collaboration.
Thirteen members of Program Planning Teams (PPTs) in a rural Nova Scotia
school board participated in this study. Participants were: two principals, two vice
principals, two classroom teachers, three resource teachers, two school psychologists, and
two speech-language pathologists. Qualitative methodology was used for the research
design and each participant completed a semi-structured interview. Grounded theory
methods were used to analyze the data.
Three themes emerged from the data. These were: taking on the role of ‘team
member,’ creating shared knowledge, and making decisions using shared knowledge. The
core concept identified was ‘transposing,’ a process by which team members transferred
and adapted their roles and knowledge held in the school to establish roles and
knowledge within the team. Taking on a team member role was influenced by one’s
attitude towards collaboration. Creating shared knowledge was influenced by
openness/reflectivity, the presence of a common goal, and communication. When
creating shared knowledge, differences in professional perspective or paradigm created
challenges. Decision-making using shared knowledge was influenced by factors
including: the composition of the team, role clarity, and workload. Together, these three
themes provide a way of conceptualizing how professionals worked together on the PPTs
under study.
Description
Keywords
Special education , Special education (evaluation) , Individualized education programs , Children with disabilities , Interprofessional relations