Power Dynamics, Common Pitfalls, and Successful Strategies Associated with Co-Teaching

Abstract

As the professoriate grows increasingly diverse and contingent, the co-teaching relationship must be examined. There are often salient power differentials between and among co-teachers associated with their position in the academic hierarchy and their social identities. This related power can affect the co-teaching professional relationship, student learning, and the retention of faculty from under-represented backgrounds in academia. This paper identifies power-related pitfalls in team teaching and offers specific strategies for avoiding them.

Keywords:

• Classroom conflict
• co-teaching
• teaching challenges
• team teaching

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers who offered thoughtful feedback and many helpful suggestions to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that she/he/they have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 Decolonizing the curriculum includes numerous pillars; the practice “involves identifying colonial systems, structures and relationships, and working to challenge those systems. It is not ‘integration’ or simply the token inclusion of the intellectual achievements of non-white cultures. Rather, it involves a paradigm shift from a culture of exclusion and denial to the making of space for other political philosophies and knowledge systems” (Keele University, n.d.).

Additional information

Funding

The analysis associated with this manuscript was not externally funded, however, the co-teaching effort reported here was part of a larger program supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under linked Award Numbers RL5GM118969, TL4GM118971, and UL1GM118970. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.