Policy-makers in Ireland advocate teacher collaboration as being a vital component of educational reform and school improvement in inclusive and participatory communities of practice. The objective of this research study was to attempt to achieve a depth of understanding of the role played by principals in the reification of the Department of Education and Skills (DES) policy around collaborative practice in their schools. This paper attempts to capture a snapshot of the current culture around teacher collaborative practice and the extent to which such practice is enabled and/or encouraged by senior management. A qualitative approach was used to gather the necessary data which were analysed using a grounded theory approach. Some key findings include: principals have an astute awareness of how collaborative practice is conceptualised and contextualised within the Irish education system; there exists a broad range of formal and informal practices already at play; principals believe that clear structures and strategies will herald the creation of a new pedagogical landscape propagated by meaningful and highly effective collaborative practice; school leaders actively encourage and endorse collaborative practice; principals are positively seeking to re-culture schools and mediate the traditional norms that many teachers are essentially fearful to forsake.

爱尔兰的政策制定者提倡教师合作是教育改革和学校改进包容性和参与性实践社区的重要组成部分。本研究的目的是试图深入了解校长在具体化教育和技能部 (DES) 学校协作实践政策中所扮演的角色。本文试图捕捉快照当前围绕教师协作实践的文化以及高级管理层支持和/或鼓励这种实践的程度。定性方法用于收集必要的数据，这些数据使用扎根理论方法进行分析。一些主要发现包括：校长对协作实践在爱尔兰教育系统中的概念化和情境化有敏锐的认识；已经存在范围广泛的正式和非正式做法；校长们认为，清晰的结构和策略将预示着通过有意义和高效的协作实践传播的新教学景观的创建；学校领导积极鼓励和认可合作实践；