Student-centred collaboration in the social network of schools: a theoretical framework

Collaboration has become a core professional activity for teachers. When collaborative activities among teachers and other school-related actors are explicitly oriented towards students’ learning, they can be conceptualised as student-centred collaboration. Prior research suggests that such collaboration is positively associated with students’ learning outcomes. However, theoretical foundations remain limited, restricting the systematic design of learning opportunities and reflective frameworks for collaborative activities regarding students’ learning. Addressing this gap, this article introduces a framework of student-centred collaboration within the social network of schools. Conceptually, the theoretical framework integrates collaboration as a social activity grounded in activity theory, a social network perspective that considers all actors relevant for student learning, and a consistent focus on students’ learning. Analytically, the framework places collaborative activities at its centre. They are specified by their objects, distinguishing content-, teaching-, and communication-oriented cultures, and by four process phases: analysis and planning, implementation, evaluation and reflection, and professional learning. Their enactment is shaped by process conditions, including intra-individual and interactional features and instruments, and structural conditions, including legal and organisational features, norms, and social network structures. The framework provides a heuristic for designing learning opportunities in teacher education and empirically analysing collaborative activities.