the teacher teams also offered opportunities for teachers to reflect and talk about their teaching practice even if some of the interviewed teachers admitted that much meeting time was used for administrative discussions these teacher teams were often in charge of school development in general and supported the school leader in implementing policy changes one school leader explained the importance of giving teachers good explanations of why the school needed to work on afl before explaining how he had used policy documents and research articles as evidence for why this was important he emphasized the importance of treating teachers with respect since they are highly educated and will not do something just because the minister has introduced a new programme overall the school leaders described practices that emphasized participation sharing responsibility and cooperation these structures can be seen as signs of successful implementation strategies and some of the schools visited were able to build a sustainable environment for afl practice through these networks