Conceptualising collaboration for educational change: the role of leadership and governance

This paper critically examines the concept of collaboration, and how it is mobilised in policy and practice in the pursuit of educational change using the Scottish education system as the context of study. Policy analysis and interviews with primary school head teachers (principals) highlighted that while collaboration is often presented as the lynchpin to improvement and change, its manifestation and utilisation are either left to chance, or reliant on specific governance arrangements initiated at multiple levels of the system. Drawing upon policy analysis and interview data from a small-scale study, this paper highlights the complexity of conceptualising collaboration and the implications this has for how it is used as a policy mechanism and form of professional practice. Highlighted in this paper is the role of leaders and leadership in developing shared conceptual clarity and planning for the unique contextual influences and drivers of collaboration in its varied forms, and the implications of this for associated governance arrangements. In doing so, this paper presents a framework for collaboration that supports the complex consideration of the interrelated domains of forms, drivers, and influences on collaboration.