Researching partnership and/or research partnerships Dr d’Reen Struthers

Why research partnership? The positioning of partnership personnel Praxis to bridge theory-practice divide The power relationships Operating at the borders Moving between different cultural and dialogical contexts Working across difference (purposes of study) Self-study, action research, reflexivity, entering a bigger conversation

My contextual background PL Schools Partnership Managerial or pedagogical partnerships? Furlong, J., McNamara, D., Campbell, A., Howson, A., & Lewis, S. (2008). Partnership, policy and politics: initial teacher education in England under New Labour. Partnership models (related to the initial teacher education school experiences for student teachers) The underlying model of partnership may not have changed fundamentally since 1992 but, … more and more teachers and schools are now taking their role seriously; they are recognising the benefits for themselves individually, for their schools and for the profession as a whole (Furlong et al., 2006). the ‘market-driven model’’ as it was enacted through the encouraged formations of partnership under the project and on behalf of the TDA. For example: schools were expected to participate in ‘recruiting’ more schools into the partnership, or offer their own mentor skills to other schools at a competitive rate, undermining any support available from the local HEI, and in some instances actually being given the authoritative voice on such matters as supervision and assessment. Furlong et al., (2006) suggest that the language of this new model conveys a technical rationalist approach to training. They also note that there are now ‘lead providers’ (that include a range of alternative groups) who are authorised as ‘agents’ to provide initial teacher education, ‘sub-contracting’ various aspects of the delivery of the ‘training’ to schools, supported with clearly set out partnership agreements. This change in language also suggests a positioning that weakens the borders between government and university departments in the same way as the borders between schools and HEIs have been challenged by directives for more collaborative action. Within this modernisation agenda, evidence was found to support the idea: …..that partnership for New Labour - and indeed for the TTA/TDA - is a concept of governance rather than to do with the form and content of professional learning (Furlong et al., 2008). Furlong et al (ibid) noted in their evaluation evidence, that practitioners were ‘being caught between’ two competing realities - one an optimistic model with echoes of former respectful relationships and the other a pragmatic model supporting a form of governance based on hierarchy and markets. Furlong, J., McNamara, D., Campbell, A., Howson, A., & Lewis, S. (2008). Furlong, J., McNamara, D., Campbell, A., Howson, A., & Lewis, S. (2008). Partnership, policy and politics: initial teacher education in England under New Labour. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 14(4), 307-318.. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 14(4), 307-318.

Learning from models of partnership HEI - led What could I learn from these kinds of partnership models? Complimentary HEI School Complimentary 4th model – the market –driven model - Collaborative school Collaborative HEI

The legitimisation of knowledge Whose knowledge? The positioning of different forms of knowledge.. And how accessible? But from different sources….

The shared questions What types of knowing and knowledge contribute to my work? In what ways and to what ends could my practice be further informed? What values and beliefs underpin or inform my practice? What have I taken for granted? How can my practice be improved? Cochran_Smith and Lytle (2009) suggest that for them, The desire to locate our work at the intersection of two worlds deeply informed and continuously called into question our perspectives on collaboration and power, voice and representation, culture and difference, the purposes of teaching and teacher education in terms of social change and social justice and the interrelationships of inquiry, knowledge and practice. Pg 90 Teacher as knower and researcher leading into Action Research movement.

Practitioner Research and University Culture: Dimensions Cochran-Smith & Lytle (2009) : Inquiry as stance Practitioner Research for the next generation. When research and practice are assumed to be dichotomous, then analysis, inquiry and theorising are understood to be part and parcel of the world of research, while action, experience and doing are considered integral to the world of practice. Practitioner research is defined at least in part, by turning these dichotomies on their heads. With PR the borders between inquiry and practice are crossed, and the boundaries between being a researcher and a practitioner are blurred. Instead of being seen as oppositional constructs, then inquiry and practice are assumed to be related to each other in terms of productive and generative tensions. From this perspective, inquiry and practice are understood to have reciprocal, recursive and symbiotic relationship and it is assumed that it is not only possible but beneficial to take simultaneously the roles of both researcher and practitioner. This means when university or school-based educators ‘work the dialectic’ of inquiry and practice, there are not distinct moments when they are only researcher or only practitioner. Rather activities and roles are integrated and dynamic. Another challenge is the view that suggests conceptual research in education is something that is quite distinct from empirical research in education with the former probably based on theory and logic and the latter based on evidence and data. By definition however practitioner research is grounded in the identification and empirical documentation of the daily dilemmas and contradictions of practice which then become grist for the development of new conceptual frameworks and theories. In turn these new distinctions and concepts guide new understanding and improvements in practice in the local site as well as more broadly. The result an epistemological hybrid conceptual-empirical inquiry or empirical-conceptual inquiry. Tensions also arise between distinction of the local knowledge (often undervalued because of its allegedly parochial and limited use, and some other kind of knowledge, sometimes labelled ‘formal’ which it is presumed is more generalisable, more widely usable and more broadly or publically applicable.

Insider-outsider partnerships Speaks of the challenges and ethical aspects of relating to outsiders when they enter other’s daily spaces Without insights from the reflective engagements of practitioners in her research, outcomes would have been only partially formed and the potential for impact on personal and wider pedagogical practice and on policy development much reduced. Such partnerships can change perspectives and practice for the educators and the researcher, as well as creating a robust platform from which wider influences on policy and practice might spring. Broadhead (2010) in Connecting Inquiry and professional Learning in Education Campbell & Groundwater-Smith (ed)

Continuum of AR practices….??? Research lead totally by the university Research lead by teachers wanting an HE award Research lead by teachers wanting HEI assistance – award not the motivation Research led totally by teachers with no HEI

Responding to an invitation transitions School culture University culture

To be an invited guest - Where does one sit at the table? Am I a partner or a collaborator? or merely a companion? Could I be a research coach or mentor?

Coaching is…  "a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful a Coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place"   Parsloe & Leedham (2009) Coaching and Mentoring: Practical conversations to improve learning

Dialogic space of knowledge creation and shared focus Boundary spanner K Zeichner 2008, 2010 – Third spaces University culture School culture Dialogic space of knowledge creation and shared focus Debates over the meaning of ‘Third Space’ (e.g. Bridging vs. integration)

Teacher ownership Agency Authentic voice Co-constructing the recipe Working with their ingredients, in their kitchen, within their house set in their, neighbourhood. Yet also pondering other ingredients..

Looking more closely – peeling the layers back Lots of different ways of seeing….

Yet as we share the gaze … Are these two sharing the same thoughts and motivations about this possible purchase?

Sharing our ‘pensieve’ – our common spaces Dumbledore explains to the young Harry that the stone basin he calls the ‘pensieve’ is used to hold excess thoughts from one’s mind so that they can be examined at leisure. “It becomes easier to spot the patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form” he says. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling. Cited by Elizabeth Holmes IoE writing on teacher professional development.

Communities of dialogue/inquiry ARC (Action Research Circle) meetings offer the dialogic space for the facilitation of increasing reflective and critical contemplation about the literature read, the themes from our pensieves the actions troubled the obstacles of data collection …

The challenges for an academic partner To want to listen Remember whose agenda it is What form will the reciprocal invitation take? ( presupposing ….) There is always something to learn Ethical concerns

Discussion: What are the benefits for schools in having an academic partner? What might be the impact for the teaching profession? What role can professional Learning Journals play? What are the benefits for HEIs to having pedagogical partnerships?

Bibliography Campbell, A., & Groundwater-Smith, s. (Eds.). (2010). Connecting Inquiry and Professional Learning in Education. London: Routledge. Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2009). Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. New York: Teachers College Press Edwards, A. (1995). Teacher Education: Partnerships in Pedagogy? Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(6), 595-610. Edwards, A., & Mutton, T. (2007). Looking forward: rethinking professional learning through partnership arrangements in Initial Teacher Education. Oxford Review of Education, 33(4), 503-519. Furlong, J., Barton, L., Miles, S., Whiting, C., & Whitty, G. (2000). Teacher Education in Transition: Re-forming professionalism? Buckingham: Open University Press.

Bibliography cont.. Furlong, J., Campbell, A., Howson, A., Lewis, S., & McNamara, O. (2006). Partnership in English initial teacher education: Changing times, changing definitions. Evidence from the Teacher Training Agency's National Partnership Project Scottish Educational Review, 37, 32-45. Furlong, J., McNamara, D., Campbell, A., Howson, A., & Lewis, S. (2008). Partnership, policy and politics: initial teacher education in England under New Labour. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 14(4), 307-318. Gorodetsky, M., & Barak, J. (2008). The Educational-cultural edge: A participative learning environment for co-emergence of personal and institutional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(Jan), 1907-1918.

Le Cornu, R. (2008). Reconceptualising professional experiences in pre-service teacher education ... restructuring the past to embrace the future. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1799. Parsloe, E., & Leedham, M. (Eds.). (2009). Coaching and Mentoring: Practical conversations to improve learning (2nd Ed). London: Kogan Page. Zeichner, K. (2010). Rethinking the connections between Campus Courses and Field Experiences in College- and University-based Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 89-99. See also www.apte.org.uk/research

Contact Details Dr d’Reen Struthers d.struthers@roehampton.ac.uk Also Research & Publications - APTE