Successful university-school partnerships: An interpretive framework to inform partnership practice (original) (raw)
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Developing effective school and university partnerships for teacher education
The use of school-university partnerships to address the theory-practice divide in teacher education has recently come to attention in international teacher education studies (e.g. [1], [2]). Schooluniversity partnerships are particularly important in primary science teacher education as a means to overcome limited opportunities primary pre-service teachers have to observe and practice science teaching during their Practicum. Their opportunities are limited due to a lack of practising teachers who include science in their classroom teaching or who do not feel sufficiently competent to act as science mentors. This is generally attributable to low teacher confidence and knowledge of how to teach science [3]. This workshop will report on a study which is exploring existing school-university partnerships in science teacher education at 5 Australian universities. Utilising a multiple case study methodology [4], the project has examined the experiences of establishing, maintaining and developing these partnership and explored the benefits of the partnerships for pre-service teachers, practising teachers and schools. A key outcome of the project is the development of an "Interpretive Framework" in which partnership practices were exemplified, contextualised and summarised, documenting key phases in the development of partnership arrangements. The Framework is currently undergoing validation with Australian universities. In this paper, the authors present the Framework to an broader audience for comment and seek to explore its relevance and transferability to school-university partnerships in an international context.
2018
This research effort investigates principal perceptions regarding the impact of science-focused school university partnership programs in primary school contexts. Utilizing a multiple case study design, this research effort analyzed the nature and structure of the partnership efforts across five established science-focused partnership programs in the Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania. Analysis of interview data from principals across twelve separate school partner sites indicated that principals depicted that partnership arrangements increased their staffs valuing of science and was a mechanism for teachers to reflect on their practices. Consequently, principals often viewed partnerships as an additional level of professional development. Most importantly, principals articulated that the partnership programs were an important aspect of the school-based culture and they harbored strong desires to continue the partnerships well into the future. Implications for partnership de...
An Introduction to School-University Partnerships-Innovation in Initial Teacher Education
School-University Partnerships—Innovation in Initial Teacher Education, 2022
School-university partnerships have now become a fundamental foundation of initial teacher education programs across Australia. Firmly embedded in the program standards required to accredit pre-service teacher preparation courses, the importance of these partnerships is widely recognised. Incentivised through policy, the focus on school-university partnerships is front and centre within initial teacher education; however, the emphasis is now shifting towards the quality and sustainability of partnerships. Embedding of successful sustainable partnerships requires a deep understanding of contextual factors that are both unique and common to each partner. Understanding the strengths and needs of each partner creates the necessary conditions for innovation. This chapter introduces this edited collection of Australian school-university partnerships. The contributions are first-hand accounts from those who oversee the school-university partnership within each institution, providing both theoretical and practical understandings of how these partnerships are formed, their function and future considerations for the sustainability of these partnerships. Each contribution is distinct, each showcasing unique approaches to partnership and each demonstrating the transformation emerging from cross-sectoral collaboration.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2013
This paper reports on some of the factors that contribute to an effective partnership between an urban Australian university and a State Department of Education. The partnership, currently in its third year of implementation, entails as a key purpose the development of school Centres of Excellence which contribute to the preparation of pre-service teachers. The foundational aims of the partnership include addressing the gap between theory and practice, facilitating pre-service teacher recruitment and providing a guarantee of future employment for identified Faculty of Education students through the provision of pre-service teacher scholarships. Data for the study were collected via two program reviews, conducted at the end of the first and third years of the program. Findings point to ways in which the partnership has enhanced pre-service teacher engagement and learning and also indicate ways in which partners in both institutions might further strengthen the partnership.
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This paper describes an innovative cross-institutional learning partnership that was designed to foster the learning of both Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) and students and teachers from a local regional Secondary College. Around 150 Grade Nine (13-14 year old) students took part in a purpose-designed activity day at the university that was organised and conducted by 34 second year PSTs as part of their teacher education program. This project was designed as an authentic teaching experience for PSTs that would enable them to translate theory from their teacher education course into teaching practice. At the same time the secondary students were offered a range of learning experiences informed by school-derived curriculum. These specifically focused activities contributed to the students’ school based learning programs whilst also encouraging them to think of university as a future option. In this paper reflections, utilizing a self-study methodology, are provided by the lecturers who d...
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2014
This paper reports on the STEPS project which addressed international concerns about primary teachers' lack of confidence to teach science, and on-going questions about the effectiveness of teacher education. The five universities involved had each independently established a science education program incorporating school-based partnerships between the university and local schools to enable primary pre-service teachers (PSTs) to teach science.
Ohio Link - file:///Users/andrea/Downloads/Burrows_Partnerships_ucin1307323122.pdf, 2011
The purpose of this research was to understand how individuals, specifically secondary teachers and graduate engineering students, developed a working relationship in a grant funded project. I investigated three interrelated research questions about partnerships including: 1) What is the meaning of partnership to each individual? 2) How do the individuals negotiate the work in their partnership? and 3) Do the individual conceptions of partnership change as a result of their interactions? I used a qualitative descriptive case study methodology. I conducted nine interviews, four focus groups, 33 classroom field note observations, and collected emails. I detailed each of the three cases, and I conducted a cross case analysis of the three schools. I compared the similarities and differences between the cases in order to understand the partnership themes that defined a specific case and those that were generalized to several cases. Using grounded theory, my overall findings showed that each case generated six themes. These themes included product, perspective, expectations, decision making, relationships, and habit. I explored all six themes in current literature, and five of the six themes were prevalent there. In my study, habit was the core phenomenon but was not as common in the literature. It was related to the socio-cognitive theory of knowledge construction and Bourdieu’s habitus. Additionally, it was connected to the concept of change in partnerships.
School-University Partnership: Perceptions of the Teachers
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The No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes a need to elevate "teacher and principal quality through recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies" (Section 2113.a.3). As districts search for ways to attract and retain teachers, as well as improve the quality of their teaching, many have turned to school-university partnerships. The development and benefits of school-university partnerships have been widely studied (Borth
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This study investigates two experiments that attempt to better connect the university component of teacher education with the field. The authors use stories from pre-service teachers to explore what learning took place in the spaces created through school-university collaborations. In one model, an intentional partnership was created between the university course instructor and four teachers and classrooms where pre-service teachers engaged in fieldwork. The other model moved the methods course to a middle school partnering with a teacher and two of his US History classes. Our findings indicate that the communities created in these spaces pushed pre-service teachers to engage deeply with the field in learning to teach and blurred the lines between theoretical and practical teacher knowledge.