Multi-site case studies on the collaboration of career technical education teachers and core teachers

In the 2014 school year, California implemented the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These new standards provided California’s teachers, from multiple disciplines, the opportunity to collaborate on interdisciplinary curricula. Given the newness of the adoption, research on Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers and core teacher collaboration practices, in response to the CCSS, was lacking. This qualitative, multi-site case study, sought to examine the collaboration models employed by districts to integrate the CCSS curriculum taught by both core and CTE teachers, in response to the CCSS. Multiple school districts within the Southern California region known as the Inland Empire were chosen as locations to collect data. Administrators, CTE teachers, and core teachers from each of the districts were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The data were transcribed and coded to reveal the common themes shared by the participants throughout the region. The common themes that emerged during the study were participants’ understanding of the impending shifts associated with transitioning from the 1997 California state standards to the CCSS. Other themes including an awareness of the design of the CCSS, the professional development provided to district personnel, and teacher collaboration structures. Additionally, varying attitudes and dispositions associated with the implementation of the CCSS surfaced and were acknowledged. Moreover, a theme that emerged during the interviews with the districts were the various Local Educational Agency (LEA) initiatives that were prominent during the implementation of the CCSS. Although further research is needed to better understand the phenomenon of interdisciplinary collaboration, this study can assist educators in understanding the experiences of school districts in the Inland Empire through the examination of the collaboration models that were employed by districts to integrate the CCSS curriculum taught by both core and CTE teachers.