Teacher Communities Affect Student Learning

In this intriguing article highlighted in the Washington Post, Esther Quintero, senior fellow at the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute, looks at whether students learn more when their teachers work well together. Sure enough, good community among teachers in a school is just as important as within the classroom.

While this is not new to many peace educators who are starting to look at holistic systems in addition to class methods and content, having empirical evidence “that this somewhat broad and diffuse notion that relationships matter is not some warm and fuzzy idea… it could hold an important key to educational improvement” is extremely helpful in leveraging change within an educational setting.

For language eductors, healthy relationships among colleagues who speak different languages is essential to model positive communication in both languages. How have you seen this dynamic at work in your contexts?