A qualitative exploration of the characteristics and practices of interdisciplinary collaboration

Abstract

The Children's Centres in South Australia are examples of settings requiring the effective collaboration of disciplines from 
diverse backgrounds, such as staff from education, health and welfare. Working together across different professional groups 
is complex and challenging. Existing literature describing collaboration in early childhood settings focuses on exploring the 
concept from a single professional perspective, with limited exploration from multiple professional perspectives. The aim of 
this study was to describe the characteristics and practices of collaboration in well-established Children's Centre teams from 
multiple professional perspectives.  It is anticipated that this description can result in strategies for other teams in similar interdisciplinary settings. A systematic review was conducted summarising the literature on the characteristics and practices of 
collaboration in Children's Centres, followed by a descriptive qualitative study. Team members from two centres participated 
in focus groups, thematic analysis was undertaken and findings of both phases were integrated.

Characteristics and practices that support constructive teamwork were identified, with the central theme of leadership and the 
interrelated sub-themes including: development of team cohesiveness; supportive team processes, as well as working within 
and between government departments. The study contributes to the understanding of the complexity and inter-relatedness of 
the characteristics and processes involved in collaboration, highlighting the importance of leaders in supporting the 
collaboration of disciplines from different professional backgrounds.

Key words: collaboration, teamwork, Children's Centres, qualitative, early childhood