Abstract
Collaboration is often promoted as an important strategy to enhance capacity-building. In the education sector it draws upon long-standing practices of social constructivist learning and teaching, which value working and learning from others. This chapter examines the collaborative process through the shared experiences of individuals and groups in a range of research projects. Although collaboration is often considered to be a worthy aim, this can create tension in a learning culture that, in neoliberal times, couches performance and productivity as outcomes of individualism and holds individual learners accountable for their success. Three distinctive settings are explored: an Australian senior secondary art classroom; an Australian teacher reflecting on her work supporting student well-being; and the work of an English drama teacher teaching circus skills.