Co-teaching in Primary Education: Insights from Empathy-Based Narratives
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Co-teaching in Primary Education: Insights from Empathy-Based Narratives Co-teaching offers both benefits and challenges, and its implementation should be carefully considered by each school (Cook & Friend, 1995). Key concerns include funding, the time required for planning and reflection, and the need for professionally complementary teachers (Graziano & Navarrete, 2012). However, the perceived meaningfulness of co-teaching by the teachers themselves plays a crucial role—without it, its potential remains limited, even with institutional support. This study explores how co-teachers in primary schools perceive the value of co-teaching, identifies positive and problematic experiences, and examines factors contributing to its success. The research uses the Method of Empathy-Based Stories (MEBS; Särkelä & Suoranta, 2020), a qualitative approach capturing teachers’ lived and imagined experiences through structured narrative writing. While MEBS does not aim to reveal objective truth, it offers valuable insight into teachers’ perceptions, shaped by specific cultural and school contexts (Wallin et al., 2018). Participants wrote two contrasting first-person narratives: one in which co-teaching proves meaningful despite challenges, and one where it is ineffective or counterproductive. To date, four narratives have been collected from two teachers, with data collection ongoing to achieve thematic saturation. Preliminary thematic analysis (cf. Braun & Clarke, 2022) suggests that teachers assess co-teaching primarily by its impact on student learning rather than on their own professional development. In classrooms with high student diversity, co-teaching is viewed positively, provided adequate resources and a shared pedagogical vision are in place. Crucially, as Pesonen et al. (2021) emphasize, co-teaching requires a strong sense of partnership, mutual accountability, and active engagement—not merely a redistribution of tasks. These findings underscore the importance of thoughtful and strategic implementation to ensure co-teaching fosters both student success and professional collaboration. |
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