Collaborative strategies were used for the conduct of research on two topics: preservice teacher education for elementary school teachers, and preservice and inservice education for secondary school mathematics teachers. The collaborative arrangements were the same for both projects, but the tasks differed. The intent of the elementary school teacher education project was to establish a single collaborative team that would determine appropriate ways to introduce knowledge of effective teaching into preservice curricula and to implement plans for including this knowledge in teacher preparation programs at three colleges. The team consisted of a researcher and three teacher educators. The secondary school mathematics teacher education project consisted of three separate collaborative teams, each having a researcher, a high school teacher, and a university-based mathematics teacher. The task of this project was to identify and describe conditions surrounding the education of high school mathematics teachers and to implement plans for the improvement of mathematics teacher education. The collaborative process used in these projects is analyzed in six different areas: (1) team selection; (2) team preparation; (3) history of participants; (4) status and role perceptions of participants; (5) rewards and incentives; and (6) parity and reciprocity between participants. (JD)