Association for Partnership

in Teacher Education

Simon Asquith & d’Reen Struthers

Primary ITE - the developing challenge for Partnerships

….(W)hen partnership is reduced to finding more places or setting up common procedures and paperwork, without paying attention to the epistemological and pedagogical issues underpinning any one teacher education programme, it undermines the nature of the professional education that is offered. Once again, it flattens the complexity and reduces teacher education to technical rational tasks.

(Furlong, Campbell, Howson, Lewis, & McNamara, 2006, p.43)

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.

Working in ITE partnership

• Partnership staff often work in isolation

• Both academic and administrative staff work in partnership

• Collaboration supports the sharing of good practice

• Often positioned in HEIs as engaging managerial partnerships

• There is a growing global research base for partnership practices

The changing face of partnership

•Both Schools and HEIs are now working in multi-agency partnerships

•Tensions continue between HEI and school-led routes to QTS

•Some tensions arise from views about what types of knowledge are necessary for preparing teachers from both schools and HEIs

•Tensions about QA as the recommending QTS partner still is responsible

As schools become more organised and managed, how do partnership processes recognise and support such developments?

Technicist consequences of managerial partnerships versus pedagogical partnerships

Since TDA requirements are moving HEI partnerships towards more significant school-based involvement – what are the debates? Where can we have the forum to discuss the reality of these directives?

What does APTE offer?

A national network and professional association which

•encourages, promotes and supports professional discourse relating to partnerships

• provides a forum to share good practice, update & lead development

•advocates and champions partnership within and beyond ITE

• encourages research and staff support

The value of local and grass-root discussion

•Addressing the needs of partnership staff (admin and academic)

• Opportunity to consider different models and to inquire into other ways of meeting the current challenges of centrally led policy changes.

Annual Conferences

2008 Quality and Capacity in School Partnership

2009 Partnership Landscapes

2010 Extending partnerships