Trust and Positive Working Relationships among Teachers in Communities of Practice as an Avenue for Professional Development

Abstract

This study explores trust and positive working relationships among teachers in communities of practice as an avenue for professional development in high schools in South Africa. A mixed methods research approach was employed for this study with the use of a semi-structured interview and semi-structured questionnaires as data collection instruments. Ten schools were purposively selected for this study and seventy-nine participants were selected as samples. The findings of the study show that teachers had good working relationships with their colleagues. The good working relationships they had enabled them to assist their colleagues, share their classroom challenges with them, confide in their colleagues, and they were able to get assistance from them. It was established from the study that a great number of teachers feel safe to be part of the communities of practice activities in the sampled high schools, thus, they engage in diverse of discussions with their colleagues and they were able to relate to their colleagues the difficulties they have in terms of their work. The study recommends that teachers should spend an adequate time in their meetings, see themselves as colleagues, interact as teams, and build strong ties to have good relationships and a strong level of trust among themselves.