This paper explores how stages in coteaching may be identified and supported using a neo-Vygotskian model of social transformation (Stetsenko, 2008; Author 2008) to ensure optimum opportunity for reciprocal professional development. Stetsenko postulated that social transformation was possible only when people moved from (a) participating in a collaborative effort towards (b) active participation, (c) cooperation, (d) active cooperation and eventually to (e) contribution in the process. Author (2008) citing coteaching and cogenerative dialogue as a context, proposed the final developmental stage to be (f) shared contribution perhaps facilitating an even more powerful transformation. We are using this framework as a model to show how coteaching can develop from the earliest stages, in which coteachers tend to participate (often quite gingerly) towards shared contribution (Author, 2015). Coteachers were presented with this model before they started coteaching, and critiqued its usefulness as the coteaching developed. Twelve music pre-service teachers and twelve primary in-service teachers experienced the affordances of coteaching for reciprocal professional development whilst building a music programme in the school. At the start of the study the school cited music composition as the curricular area with which they were having most difficulty. Thus, the key research question related to how coteaching might offer reciprocal professional development primary school music composition and how the neo-Vygotskian model of social transformation might monitor and support progress. Data was collected from questionnaires, semi -structured interviews, and lesson evaluations. Initial findings indicate that embedding the model of social transformation into the research design enabled all participants to progress professionally, however levels of commitment and maturity as well as flexibility and openness to shared practice were identified as significant factors in the rate of progression. Unresolved tensions from embodied assumptions relating to philosophies of music education surfacing in some cases in the participation stages impeded development. Addressing these issues before and during the participation stages facilitated an expansion of agency which in some cases created real opportunities for classroom transformation. Data analysis of the subsequent stages and a critique of the model are underway and will be presented at the conference.

Author (2008; 2012; 2015) Stetsenko A. (2008). From relational ontology to transformative activist stance on developmental and learning: expanding Vygotsky’s (CHAT) project. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3, 471-491.