Title: Working Together to Strengthen the School Community: The Restructuring of a University-School Partnership.
Abstract: IntroductionThe purpose of this article is to describe how an existing university-school partnership was restructured in an effort to bring academic and practitioner knowledge together in a more synergistic way in support of preservice teacher learning as well as classroom teacher development. It shifts the epistemology of preservice teacher preparation from a place where academic knowledge in the university is seen as the primary source of knowledge about teaching to a situation where academic knowledge and the knowledge of expert P-12 teachers are treated with equal respect. This article highlights the unique qualities of the new partnership in its infancy stages, describes some of the early obstacles it had to overcome, and finally shares some early qualitative feedback.University-School Partnerships: Where Have They Been?Within the last 20 years, professional development schools-innovative institutions formed through partnerships between professional education programs and P-12 schools-have emerged and become, for many, the sine qua non of teacher preparation and professional development (Brindley, Lessen, & Field, 2008/2009). These university-school partnerships and community collaborations have also been among the most frequently recommended approaches to educational reform (Clark, 1988; Kersh & Masztal, 1998). One reason is that universities and schools provide each other with resources and benefits in both research and practice (Stump, Lovitt, & Perry, 1993) and need each other to reach their common and respective goals (DeBevoise, 1986; Goodlad, 1988; Lasley, Matczynski, & Williams, 1992). A university-school partnership represents a planned effort to establish a formal, mutually beneficial, interinstitutional relationship (Goodlad, 1988). The purpose of the partnership is to create a process and an accompanying structure that allows partners to draw on one another's complementary strengths to advance their interests (Goodlad, 1988) for the simultaneous renewal of both parties (Goodlad, 1990). While university partnerships are not new to the world of teacher education and much obvious strength exists in this model of collaboration, the kindergarten center's building administrator and I, as university professor/ partnership liaison, believed ours had room for improvement.University-School Partnerships: Where Are They Going ?A perennial problem in traditional university-sponsored teacher education programs has been the lack of connection between university-based teacher education courses and field experiences (Zeichner, 2010). Although most university-based teacher education programs now include multiple field experiences over the length of the program and often situate field experiences in some type of school-university partnership (e.g., professional development schools, partner schools), the disconnect between what students are taught in campus courses and their opportunities for learning to enact these practices in their school placements is often very great (Bullough et al., 1997, 1999; Zeichner, 2007). Darling-Hammond (2009) referred to the lack of connection between what is learned on campus and field experiences as the Achilles heel of teacher education.Research has clearly shown that field experiences are important occasions for teacher learning, rather than merely time for teacher candidates to demonstrate or apply things previously learned (Zeichner, 1996). Rosaen and Florio-Ruane (2008) discussed how assumptions about the purposes of field experience in teacher education limit their value as teacher learning experiences, and they offered ideas for rethinking field experiences as more productive learning environments. Cochran-Smith and Lytle's (2009) ideas about using teaching practice as a site for inquiry are an example of changing the paradigm for thinking about the role of field experiences in educating teachers.Over the years, teacher educators have tried a variety of approaches to strengthen the connection between campus and field-based teacher education, and some have even argued that clinical experiences should be the central focus of preservice teacher education from which everything else in a program emanates (Ball & Forzani, 2009; Turney, Eltis, Towler, & Wright, 1985). …
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 9
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