Team Teaching in Social Work: Sharing Power With Bachelor of Social Work Students

Abstract

Team teaching in social work education usually involves sequential lectures delivered by different instructors—relay or tag-team teaching. Truly collaborative or collegial team teaching involves a committed group of diverse instructors interacting together as equals in the classroom. Having more than one teacher in the classroom confounds traditional student strategies of meeting expectations of a single authority or expert; they are forced to think for themselves. This article explores the literature on team teaching from social work and related disciplines, concluding with a close examination of recent collegial team-teaching experiences in social work at the University of Calgary.