The Skillful Teacher

Team Teaching
One of the most predictable realities in American college classrooms
is that solo teaching reigns supreme. A classroom full of diverse stu-
dents is confronted by one person in the role of instructor who, no
matter how much she might strive to empathize with different learn-
ing needs, racial traditions, and personality types, is inevitably lim-
ited by the boundaries of her own personality, racial group
membership, talents, and experience. However, when two or three
people with different racial identities, experiences, talents, and per-
sonalities form a teaching team, the possibilities for connecting to a
wider range of students expand exponentially. In a team-taught course
the likelihood is substantially increased that at some point in the class
most students will be taught by someone whose learning style, per-
sonality, cultural background, and communicative preferences match
their own. This is particularly the case when multiracial teaching
teams work in multiracial classrooms.
As teachers we all bring different gifts and handicaps to the table.
A team that works well is aware of the different talents of its mem-
bers and attempts to mix these as equitably as possible. When I teach
with someone who prefers lecturing, I can balance that inclination
(which many students will appreciate) with my preference for group
work (which others will appreciate just as much). My lecturing 
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colleague can also alert me to times when I need to make a presen-
tation to clarify or introduce difficult subject matter to students.
When I teach with someone who exhibits a confrontational
demeanor, my more laid-back approach helps keep the confronta-
tion from spiraling out of control. On the other hand, the colleague
with a confrontational impulse helps ensure that I don’t dwell longer
than necessary on a wholly congenial activity and that I move in a
timely way to a more challenging learning task. Without such a col-
league, my concern to affirm students might lead me into an educa-
tional dead end. The students in my classes might be enjoying
themselves in a safe environment, but they would probably not be
learning very much.
As a person who relies on words to communicate, it is useful for
me to co-teach with someone who is more visually attuned than I.
As a technophobe my teaching needs to be counterbalanced by
working with someone proficient in computer-assisted instruction.
On the other hand, my commitment to continually researching
how students are experiencing their learning counterbalances the
tendency of some of my colleagues to assume that things are going
well if students are not actively complaining. In multiracial class-
rooms I need to teach with colleagues who are from the racial
groups represented, or to involve cultural brokers to help me under-
stand students’ behaviors and to vouch for my trustworthiness and
competence.
Unfortunately, what often passes for team teaching is sometimes
only an agreement amongst a group of colleagues to divide a course
into several discrete and different segments, each of which is the
sole responsibility of one of the team. This is sequenced solo teach-
ing, not team teaching. In true team teaching all activities are
planned, conducted, and evaluated by all members of the team who
are also all present for all class time. It is most emphatically not an
agreement to teach only those classes in which one has expertise
and then not to show up for the rest of the classes taught by ones’
colleagues. True team teaching takes more time and energy than
Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
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KILLFUL
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EACHER
solo teaching because now all decisions have to be talked through
with colleagues rather than remaining one’s own judgment call. It
is also more costly. Not surprisingly, autocratically inclined teach-
ers don’t like it, nor do cost-conscious administrators. But students
often appreciate the energy generated by team teaching and the
chance to work with different faculty who exhibit a range of iden-
tities and skills. If the norm in college was for diverse teaching
teams to front diverse classrooms, we would be going a long way to
addressing this issue effectively.