University Partnerships for Pre-Service and Teacher Development: Volume 10

The chapters in this volume focus on how university partnerships for pre-service and teacher development apply novel ideas to improve teacher quality in global communities. The purpose of these programs is to improve education systems for all participants. Case studies in this volume present a broad and in-depth review of partnerships that apply novel ideas to transform organizations. This chapter provides an overview to this volume by discussing important elements of teacher quality by defining teacher quality characteristics, shared collaboration, and providing ideas for professional development agendas.

In the United Kingdom, partnership is increasingly a requirement of public sector funding. Such partnerships, formed strategically to win government contracts, can prove brittle; collaboration is often superficial. This chapter explores how a consortium of Scottish higher, further and adult education institutions, assembled expediently to respond to a contract arising from a Scottish Government strategy for adult literacies, nevertheless became genuinely collaborative. In the course of a six-year project to develop new professional qualifications for adult literacies tutors, a core group within the consortium developed a resilient affiliation able to lever advantage within individual institutions from its association. Its intentionality and readiness to transgress boundaries in the face of institutional obstacles were grounded in a shared pedagogical perspective. We examine how common understandings and shared objectives were forged in a series of critical incidents. The territorialism that often inhibits genuine collaboration was weakened in the face of the allegiances precipitated by these incidents. The virtual learning environment, as a shared boundary object, facilitated the negotiation of interinstitutional collaboration. We conclude that critical incidents and boundary objects can be planned into partnership working to build trust through exposure to risk and vulnerability.

This chapter focuses on a two-year, college–school partnership in which ELL parents became students who learned English and to tutor their own children. This program was part of a larger project piloting methods of students helping other students learn. It was conducted at three schools in an urban district: one elementary and two intermediate schools. The elementary school had three tutoring programs: reading, ESL and Parent Tutoring. One intermediate school developed a reading tutoring program and the other instituted cooperative learning. Topics addressed include: selecting schools, writing a grant proposal, working with district and school administrators and teachers, professional development, tutor training, and assessment. It gives an overview of the processes involved in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the programs in this project. Results indicate the Parent Tutoring Program was successful both years. Recommendations for successful practices are specified for colleges, schools and funding agencies. They focus on eight themes: finances, administration, accountability, collaboration, communications, pedagogy, professional development, and research/evaluation. Target audiences for this chapter are: college and school teachers, college and school administrators, teacher-education faculty and students, policy makers and personnel at education-supporting non-profit organizations.

For a number of years and in several policy programs, entrepreneurship education has been considered a core part of the educational system in every European country. However, teachers in general education seem ill-equipped to incorporate entrepreneurship in their daily practices. The present study examines how universities can support teachers’ professional development in creating learning environments in general education related to working life and entrepreneurship, highlighting design-based research (DBR) as one model of continuing education. The continuing education process in question was a university-school collaborative partnership in a regional project coordinated by the university and involving teachers (N = 8) in comprehensive schools and upper secondary schools. Each teacher was observed and supported by a university lecturer (one of the authors) in their natural learning environments while developing their practices. The university lecturer working as project leader is a researcher in entrepreneurship education and has previously worked as a teacher at the educational levels in question. Despite some challenges, the findings encourage further development of the model, especially for scheduling of the supporting research.

This chapter presents a university’s School of Education partnership with three local elementary schools to provide learning and professional development opportunities for all stakeholders. Impacting student learning is the main goal of these collaborative endeavors, regardless of age. University pre-service educators perform a variety of activities with elementary students to extend hands-on learning experience beyond their coursework. Experiences focus on mutually beneficial activities for both parties which fulfills each one’s mission and vision for impacting student learning on both the elementary level and the teacher preparation program. Professional development includes activities that involve teacher-to-teacher initiatives that may be designed for teachers by teachers to share teaching strategies; research, both qualitative and quantitative, involving practitioners in the field using student-centered and innovative new instructional ideas in the classroom developing toolkits of best practices. Qualitative approaches are taken through interviews and teacher perceptions through the process and product of each professional development activity.

Regarding the implementation of public policies focused on teacher education, it can be noted that in recent years the Brazilian Federal Government has intensified its proposal for programs focused on initial teacher training. Since 2007 in Brazil, the Institutional Scholarship for Teaching Initiation Program (PIBID) has become a public policy organization focused on teacher education. Through analyzing the implementation of these projects approved in the PIBID environment, it is possible to note that different activities have been developed in the university-school partnerships and that these joint actions supply a multiplicity of collaborative experiences. The main contribution that the PIBID performs for future teachers is that of conceiving a different educational space, which considers the school as a locus of teacher learning. Through this partnership, future teachers can experience a period understood as “pre-teaching,” during which it is possible to project themselves into their future teaching profession, experiencing their dilemmas, challenges, and successes. We can also single out the involvement of the teachers in the partner schools in the development of research into their own practices and the movement of universities in (re)thinking their teacher training courses.

This chapter documents an innovative pedagogical application of a service-learning oriented approach, pioneered by academics at a University in the North of England (UNEUK). Referred to as directed experiential learning, the core ethos of this approach connected forms of close-to-practice research, critical reflection, and community engagement and as such brought about a radical reworking of the final year of study for an existing undergraduate program – a BA (Hons) Education Studies. Responding to a broadening professional context within UK schools, this program prepared nascent professional educators and through their studies, invited them to engage in university–community partnerships where their learning and contributions to practice were inextricably conjoined.

In 2008 the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Department of Education (TasED) entered into a high-level Partnership agreement. The Partnership in Teaching Excellence, funded by the Federal Smarter Schools National Partnerships – Improving Teacher Quality agreement, included higher education funded places for teachers wishing to complete a Master’s degree, and at the other end of the profession, an innovative alternative teacher education pathway for final-year pre-service teachers (PSTs), run as a competitive scholarship program. The intent of the program was threefold, to assist PSTs in becoming quality reflective practitioners with the capacity to work in high needs schools, explore ways of improving mentor teachers and PSTs’ reciprocal relationships, and increase the retention of teachers in TasED schools. Begun at a time of intense industrial action, the Partnership program appeared rather one-sided with little apparent benefit conferring to the University and was at all times highly contentious.

Using Kagan’s six stages of collaboration as a framework, and drawing on interviews with the first cohort of scholarship PSTs, and a range of personal files documenting the beginnings of the Partnership, including minutes of meetings, PST results, and unpublished reviews commissioned by the TasED, this chapter explores the beginnings of the Partnership, as together those on the ground worked out what “Partnership” meant. It presents an evaluation of those initial successful first years, including the learning outcomes of the PSTs and discusses the lessons learned for establishing future university/school Partnership. The Partnership program continued to 2013, when Federal funding for the project was discontinued.

Developed and discussed in this chapter is a model for university–school partnerships in the Goodlad tradition, a model referred to as the Professional Development Center (PDC). This model is a unique apprenticeship-based partnership inspired from Goodlad, the Holmes Group, NNER, and others, and, has been sustained for nearly 25 years at a rural midwestern university in the United States. Though different in form from the professional development school model, the PDC functions conceptually similarly in that it seeks to renew and revitalize teaching and teachers, and to do so in a professional learning context predicated on inquiry aiming toward the improvement of practice.

This chapter proceeds by introducing the PDC, discussing its policies and practices, curriculum, competencies, and commitments of those in the program, and concludes by discussing the growth, leadership, and renewal experienced through the program. Inclusive in this chapter are observations from mentors and novices who have gone through the PDC programming.

The impact of political change in England between 2010 and 2016, has been particularly evident in the way the neoliberal agenda has shaped legislation for Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This chapter will explore the way in which the teaching profession in England has seen tensions mounting between those who see teaching as merely a technical “craft,” something that requires a scant “training” program, and those who frame the education of teachers as a more holistic activity; one that should take account of the pedagogies of adult learning, being a journey of critical reflection and lifelong learning. Drawing on evidence from recently published research studies and a small scale research project with members of Association for Partnership in Teacher Education in England, six dimensions of the current school–university partnership culture are identified. How those involved in ITE are affected by these elements is then critiqued. The findings show how ITE providers now find themselves juggling involvement in a variety of routes into teaching – like the roman rider straddling various horses. Their ability to balance the “disturbances” that arise from the rapidly changing central government policies in England, potentially challenges the integrity of the teaching profession.

The chapter offers a case-study grounded in a professional development program for middle- and high-school teachers of history and/or social studies. The featured program supported American history teachers integrating the study of Picturing America images into academic subjects. Employing a dynamic Seattle-area academic and teaching partnership with the Seattle Art Museum, the Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the project elaborated on Picturing America’s democracy theme. This theme, combined with visual thinking methods of exploring artworks, helped teacher link Picturing America’s masterpieces to their history curriculum, content standards, and individual responsibilities to promote informed civic participation. The program made innovative use of the Picturing America images to explore such historical concepts as freedom, equality, and inclusion. The purpose of the initiative was to enhance teaching innovation and curriculum and to help participants become influential teacher-leaders who can advocate for greater curricular emphasis on the combination of art and civic concepts. A signature feature of this effort was the focus on dissent as a lens through which to view key curricular concepts such as liberty, community, and informed citizenship.

A school of education participated in crowdfunding events to empower the next generation of teachers and promote neighborhood partnerships.

School of education faculty, staff and pre-service teachers alongside neighborhood public elementary schools and local community agencies created and presented unique partnership models designed to increase community awareness and engagement in education. Crowdfunding projects were presented in two consecutive years at an annual city-wide innovative crowdfunding event. Discussion of projects development, specific activities and outcomes from this entrepreneurial event are shared.

It is widely accepted that second language teachers’ performance would dramatically improve if they were provided with the right support that addressed their self-awareness and pedagogical skills, especially in their early years of service. To verify the role of Transactional Analysis (TA) OK Modes Model in the provision of support for novice teachers, this research used the TA OK Modes Model on 26 newly recruited EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers who volunteered to participate in this study. The videos of the participants’ teaching enactments, the supervisor’s notes, the informal talks with the participants, and the teachers’ interpretation of their videos comprised the data for the study. The results of the analyses of both quantitative and qualitative data indicated that the effective Mode which communication comes from in the TA OK Modes Model facilitates teacher development and hence improves the quality of their pedagogical performance.

Through a retrospective, reflective, descriptive methodology, three researchers explore their experiences as teacher educators. Interactions with a variety of educational stakeholders in Guatemala resulted in new perspectives about culture, language, instruction, literacy materials, and access. Even though each researcher had a distinct background, global experience, and teaching expertise, they collaborated for data analysis and describe how their new international perspectives renews teaching and subsequently invigorates the learning of students back in the institutions of higher learning in the United States. All three brought their new learning into their higher education venues back in the United States to better prepare literacy educators for today’s global world.

Teaching professional literacy is a difficult endeavor, yet it is extremely important that educators are equipped with the required knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary to be engaged and responsible members of the profession. This chapter addresses the combined efforts of a university faculty of education working in concert with a provincial teacher union and school boards to assist pre-service teacher candidates in developing their own sense of professional identity. It will be demonstrated that this partnership assisted students in conceptualizing a professional identity by solidifying their understanding of ethical, legal, and organizational issues commonly associated with the teaching profession.