Becoming Collaborative

Collaboration doesn't come easy. In the past Western cultural systems have promoted competition over collaboration. This is changing, but what does it mean to think and act collaboratively? Here are a few reflections:
1. Professional identity is forged within specific disciplines, communities of practice help to bridge the disciplinary divide, but disciplinary approaches are still significant factors in attitudes to interdisciplinary work.
2. Shared experiences, through community of practice activities, need to be fostered.
3. For collaboration to be meaningful there needs to be shared goals and defined outcomes.
4. Collaboration needs to track the 'troublesome' nature of the collaborative process.
5. Differences in methods and finding a shared language need to be approached through openness and flexibility of attitude. Revealing how disciplinary representations of knowledge and disciplinary histories play parts in this dynamic process.
6. Collaboration requires the honouring of disciplinary identity and activity, yet being flexible enough to allow multiple conceptual lenses or methods to be critiqued within the framework of the project and its agreed goals.
7. Facilitators and mentors 'model' collaborative practice through their own attitudes and approaches to collaborative work.
8. The transformative value of disciplinary collaboration allows for a more holistic approach to problem-solving.
E-mail comments or suggestions on becoming collaborative.

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