Partnership Between Teachers and School Counsellors for Quality Learning and Work in the Community

Abstract

This article discusses the topic of schools as a learning communities from the perspective of the collaboration of two groups of school workers - teachers and school counsellors. The introduction defines how the concept of schools as learning communities is understood and how it is related to the concept of learning organizations. It also further elaborates on the key characteristics of learning communities. The first premise of the contribution is that through joint effort and collaboration, counsellors and teachers can more efficiently face the practical challenges of their work, both in providing help and encouragement to students and in ensuring better classroom work on the level of the whole school. The second is that they are important partners to each other in their professional development through joint reflections of their educational principles and expectations. The article further focuses on the quality of cooperation between counsellors and teachers in primary and secondary schools in Slovenia. The results of the empirical research show that both groups of school workers tend to evaluate their cooperation as either very good or good while teachers tend to be more satisfied. The questionnaire responses show that teachers believe collaboration can benefit them, however that they frequently leave decisions about work with specific students or classes to the counsellors. Establishing and maintaining partner collaboration is always a challenge, however, it is also crucial for effectively confronting contemporary challenges and ensuring quality learning for all and the contribution thus concludes with guidelines for establishing such a beneficial collaboration.