Group work is an educational mode that promotes both learning and socialization among students, and students’ engagement and participation in the group work has proven to be important. Empirical research conducted on the implementation of inclusive and collaborative processes in group work is sparse. Based on social psychological perspective we will in this study focus on inclusive and collaborative processes when students are working in small groups.

The aim of the study was to investigate and describe students’ inclusive and collaborative processes in group work and how the teacher supports or impedes these transactions.

Social Interdependence Theory (Johnson & Johnson, 2002), one of the dominant influences on Cooperative learning, was utilized as the theoretical perspective overarching the study. Data were obtained through observations made from video-recording 500 minutes of group work undertaken in one Year 5 classroom at a municipal school in Sweden and were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006). Part of Black-Hawkins (2010, 2013) framework of participation was used to define inclusion and for the analysis of inclusive and collaborative processes.

The results suggest that students’ active participation in the analytical discussions around the group task and discussions around group work structures, together with the teacher’s more defined feedback and avoidance of the traditional authoritative role are examples on prerequisites for group work to be enacted in an inclusive and collaborative manner. These prerequisites give the students opportunities to be accountable both for the individual and the group’s collective work.