ABSTRACT
In this study, we examine how cooperation and constructive controversy evidenced within school management teams (SMT) relate to collaboration among teachers. Dyad survey data was collected from SMT members and teachers at 32 primary schools in Hong Kong. Results of multilevel regression analysis indicated that cooperation among SMT members was positively related to teacher collaboration. Moreover, constructive controversy within SMTs mediated the path and contributed additional variance explained in school-wide teacher collaboration. These findings affirm that the leadership dynamics of SMTs in Hong Kong primary schools do appear to have a positive influence on potentially important school-level conditions.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank James Ko, Joanna Li, Rebecca Li, and Bowie Liu for their assistance in data collection and Wayne Chen for his assistance in data analysis.
Funding
This study was supported in part by funding support from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong through the Early Career Scheme Project # 846012.
Notes
1. Specifically, here are the comparisons of the school types between our data and the entire schools: aided (88% of our data vs. 82% of the entire schools), government (3% of our data vs. 7% of the entire schools), DSS (3% in our data vs. 4% in the entire schools), and private (6% of our data vs. 7% of the entire schools). We wish to note that due to the issue of data accessibility we used the 2013 primary school profile data (Committee on Home-School Cooperation, Citation2013), while our data collection was completed in 2012 for these comparisons. However, we do not think that there was a dramatic change of school type during the period between 2012 and 2013.
2. Like in a 2-1-1 or 1-1-1 design; for further discussion please refer to (Preacher, Zyphur, & Zhang, Citation2010).