COLLABORATION AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY FOR NEW
TEACHERS
Christine Pemberton & Tina Brown
Kanda University of International Studies
INTRODUCTION
The spring 2020 term at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) was unexpectedly
moved from on campus to fully online, forcing teachers to quickly adapt. This was anespecially challenging situation for teachers who were new to university teaching andalready facing a steep learning curve. As two teachers both new to university teaching, wedecided to collaborate on course planning together with the hope of increasing oureffectiveness and efficiency. We supported each other while planning Freshman English, arequired course for all freshmen students. The course is divided into six distinct thematicunits and focuses on academic language growth and conversational ability. This paper will
explore why we chose to collaborate, how we collaborated, and advantages anddisadvantages of the process.
WHY WE CHOSE TO COLLABORATE
Our decision to collaborate was based on our mutual needs. Initially, we were assigned towork in course groups, small groups composed of more experienced and less experienced
teachers in charge of similar groups of students. These groups were to work together toadapt materials for online lessons. However, we quickly found that our knowledge and skill
sets lagged behind those of our more experienced course group members due to ournewness to KUIS and to university teaching in general. We both had been teaching at thehigh school level for several years and so had similar vantage points as we entered into a
new set of norms and expectations. We felt uncertain of the best way to approach planning
our lessons and were filled with questions about the curriculum, materials, student needs,and tech use. With the inherent isolation of online teaching, we felt the need for a greaterlevel of support from a sympathetic peer. Thus, the decision to collaborate was born ofboth practical and affective needs. Initially, we struggled through planning unit 1 of thecourse (the orientation unit) both by ourselves and with our assigned course groups. This
prompted the two of us to work together on planning unit 2 (the Japan unit).
METHOD OF COLLABORATION
In order for the two of us to collaborate, we primarily used Google Drive and Zoom, withoccasional emails and messages on LINE (a popular messaging application in Japan). We
started by creating a shared folder on Google Drive for unit 2. Using the materials on theKUIS shared Google Drive, we made an adapted draft of a unit schedule and copies ofrelevant documents.
In the first meeting there was a great deal of information and many documents with which
neither of us were familiar. After some time we came up with a flow that worked well for us,
14.	  Collaboration	  as	  a	  Survival	  Strategy	  for	  New	  Teachers.	  Christine	  Pemberton	  &	  Tina	  Brown.	  Pages	  59-­‐62.	  Literacies	  &	  Language	  Education:	  Research	  &	  Practice,	  2020	  Special	  Section:	  Teaching	  During	  a	  Pandemic.	  English	  Language	  Institute,	  KUIS.

which can be seen in Figure 1. We met on Zoom once a week for discussion andbrainstorming. Then we divided the materials we would make asynchronously to prepare
for classes. While doing said tasks, we utilized the comment function in Google Docs to ask
questions and give feedback. In the next Zoom meeting, we started by reviewing
comments and the tasks from the last time. If there were problems or questions, we used
this time for more brainstorming and discussion. We repeated this process through unit 2.
Since it worked well for us, we decided to continue collaborating throughout the term.
Fig 1. The collaboration cycle

ADVANTAGES OF COLLABORATION
Advantages to this collaboration process were numerous. Firstly, it helped us to gain adeeper understanding of the requirements of the Freshman English curriculum. We wereable to discuss aspects of the curriculum we did not understand. As we were both learning
together, we were able to stand on equal footing, working side by side toward mutual
understanding rather than being taught from the top-down by more experienced teachers.
This meant that we could each develop our own personal understanding of therequirements and explain them in our own words. We were also able to ask naive questions
without fear of judgment.
Development of effective, quality materials is another advantage that came of thecollaborative process. We each offered feedback on the materials that the other made,meaning we could catch potential issues before distributing them to students. Instructionsthat were unclear to another teacher would surely be unclear to students coming from adifferent linguistic background. Receiving positive feedback from one another helped usgain confidence that our materials would be effective in the actual lesson. We also gainedawareness of our own strengths and weaknesses with materials development, which surelywill be useful in future years of teaching.
Another major advantage of this process was the time saved. As new teachers, we wereunder the burden of not only learning a new curriculum but also having to adapt existingmaterials for online use. Necessary adaptations included converting PDFs to formats that
could be written on electronically, changing group projects that required meeting in person,editing presentation rubrics to account for a virtual setting, and so on. Working together
meant that the time spent on these was essentially divided in half, so we could spend moretime focusing on other responsibilities.
An unexpected advantage of collaborating was that we could veer off topic to casually
discuss additional questions, which is difficult to do when teaching remotely. We couldeasily address subjects like technology issues, duties outside of teaching, how to answer
questions from students, and even questions we had about teaching other classes. This also
helped to abate some of the loneliness and isolation inherent to working from home.
POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGES
There may be certain disadvantages if other new teachers attempt a similar style ofcollaboration. One risk we took in collaboration was that we did not know each other well.
Most new lecturers met on campus for one day. We also had some online orientation
sessions together. However, online meetings are not always successful in creating
professional relationships or getting to know a person. So there was a high risk that ourpersonalities might conflict. For example, one teacher might have higher standards andexpectations than the other. Collaborating with someone who is so different could create
more problems than it would save time.
Another disadvantage is that colleagues have to agree upon and stick to a timeline. If one
person is consistently late to meetings, for example, it can really disappoint orinconvenience another person. Matching schedules is always a challenge.
Additionally, a major disadvantage is that collaborating online adds more screen time. Dueto the 2020 pandemic, many people have greatly increased their screen time. This cancause physical pain and other problems. So the added screen time may not be worth theextra help depending on a person’s living situation, access to technology, physical health,and regular workload.
Finally, long-term online collaboration could be unnecessary for teachers with prioruniversity experience. As both of us were new to the school, the curriculum, teaching inhigher education, and online teaching, it was invaluable in helping us adjust to our firstsemester. Our main concern and difficulty was not understanding or knowing anything
about the materials and curriculum. Even if online teaching is new for almost all teachers,
KUIS educators have other ways of collaborating which could be sufficient for experienced
university teachers.
CONCLUSIONAs described above, a useful method of collaboration was developed as a way to cope withthe emergency online teaching situation during the spring 2020 semester at KUIS. While
this collaboration style might not work for everyone, the advantages far outweighed thedisadvantages in our situation. We both agree that this arrangement was time saving,beneficial, and allowed us to work more effectively as teachers. This collaboration method
may also be useful to new teachers in the future. Further research could investigate thepossibility of creating a more formalized system to connect new teachers to each other as
they find their footing in the university setting. This could be in the form of a voluntarypeer-to-peer collaboration system or social events exclusive to new teachers. The insights
gained from this experience are a useful reminder that good ideas often come from adverse
circumstances.