Abstract
This article examines collaboration between teachers in the ‘more teachers than classes’ (PMQC) French scheme implemented from 2013 in primary schools receiving a high number of pupils with learning difficulties. Based on concepts of teacher professional learning, teachers’ shared-work and the learning community, the research aims to highlight the continuing professional development (CPD) the teachers can set up within this scheme which constrains them to collaborate. In an ethnographic survey, the study focuses on three supernumerary teachers (ST) in three similar schools. From the collection of their time schedule, interviews about their experiences over two years in this ST’s function and the opinions of teachers in charge of classes in each school about the mandated collaborative work, the findings reveal three modes of work sharing. The analysis of these modes of work help to deepen the multi-causal processes of CPD that, in the PMQC scheme, are contrasted between teacher communities in schools. Finally, the discussion focuses on the relationship between STs’ experiences and CPD and then on the possible adaptations to be made to the scheme for practical implications.