Partnerships between teaching schools and universities: research report

Toby, Greany,; Chris, Brown,

Abstract

Partnerships between Teaching Schools/lead schools and universities in England are in a state of flux, with historical relationships being reshaped to respond to the needs of a self-improving school-led system. This process is being accelerated by the rapid expansion of School Direct, a policy-driven model which aims to give schools a stronger role in Initial Teacher Education (ITE).

The literature on school-university partnerships highlights the challenges involved in making such partnerships successful. Differences in language, culture and organisational priorities can be compounded by logistical difficulties, meaning that it can be hard to demonstrate impact. The learning from successful partnerships suggests that key features include: school and university staff having an equal voice, with practitioner priorities and knowledge explicitly valued; the creation of a ‘third space’ which is separate from the culture of either institution and allows for more creative ways of working; strategic leaders who recognise and prioritise external working of this nature as well as distributed and shared leadership across the boundaries between the partners; and shared aims and approaches, for example through a focus on solving locally defined problems utilising an enquiry approach.

The four existing and emerging alliances in this study were at different stages of development, but were characterised by high levels of commitment to the notion of school to school support and a self-improving school system. They were facing similar challenges in their development to those identified in other studies of Teaching Schools (Gu et al, 2014; Glover et al, 2014). These included: the intense pressures that development places on the lead school and the concern that this could lead to a drop in standards and even the loss of Teaching School status; and the challenge of how to build capacity and engagement across an alliance of schools, so that the lead and strategic partner schools are not carrying so much of the load.

The existing and emerging alliances in this study were undertaking a range of innovative work in relation to ITE, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and Research and Development (R&D). The work on ITE was significant, although most energy appeared to have gone into dealing with the bureaucracy and teething problems associated with the initiative, with less time spent as yet on developing genuinely innovative learning experiences for trainee teachers. The shifts associated with CPD were often more significant at this stage, with schools balancing a mix of more traditional income-generating programmes with new approaches to Joint Practice Development (JPD) for staff. These JPD models aimed to provide time and structured approaches to peer learning with explicit opportunities to learn from research. The picture on R&D was mixed: it was increasingly highly valued by the schools, with some innovative approaches in place, but the lack of capacity and funding for this presented genuine challenges.

The diagram below shows the key factors that the leading schools in this study are looking for in a university partner. The quality and credibility of the university staff are key considerations, along with the reputation and prestige of the institution itself. Whether the university is committed to partnership working and its ability to offer expertise, wider networks and a critical friend role are also important.

These factors are balanced against the inertia that comes from having historical links and relationships. On the plus side these relationships can reflect high levels of trust and collaboration, but in some cases there was a sense of dissatisfaction with the quality of the historical university partner tempered by a view that the logistical challenges and emotional effort required to sever the link would be too much to take on. In several cases historical relationships were giving ‘first mover’ advantage to universities as schools developed their thinking on School Direct: ie lead schools tended to initiate discussions and work on new School Direct provision with institutions they already knew.

All this is balanced by the need to secure value for money. School leaders must balance the hard financial aspect of this with an assessment of the quality of provision on offer.

Citation

Toby, G., & Chris, B. (2015). Partnerships between teaching schools and universities: research report

• Report Type: Research Report
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Deposit Date: Aug 22, 2024
• Pages: 1-39
• Keywords: School Direct, Initial Teacher Education (ITE), School-university partnership, Continuing Professional Development, Teaching School Alliance
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/34634752
• Publisher URL: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=2b246b15978e74618d435ef7d492ed2a1ef8afe7