DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIP THROUGH THIRD SPACE ACTIVITYResearch projectJames Burch, Dr Alison Jackson – University of Cumbria 2012 TEAN conference 2013

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RESEARCH AIMS

To explore and evaluate the strategies employed to develop collaborative provision of teacher training between schools and HEIs in teacher education.

To investigate the notion of the use of ‘Third Space’ to bring about effective collaborative provision.

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THIRD SPACE

Somewhere in which: everything comes together… subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete , the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure and agency, mind and body, consciousness and the unconscious, the disciplined and the transdisciplinary, everyday life and unending history.

Soja (1996:57)

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Looking beyond the binary categories of first [physical] and second [social] spaces’ and conclude that in a Third Space, these seemingly opposite binaries can actually work together to generate ‘new knowledges’.

Moje et al.(2004:42) ‘Third Space’ suggests coming out of our

normal working environment (school or university) and into a neutral ‘third space’ to design, develop and deliver teacher education with jointly shared understanding and vision. 4

METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

Small-scale case study, concentrating on a specific situation in depth within a limited time scale.

Illuminative Evaluation – to show how existing knowledge is used to inform and guide practical action.

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WHAT IS THE SPECIFIC SITUATION?

The programme and philosophy of the PGCE secondary programme in one HEI in England.

How to get to a position of ‘enactment’ using a different form of collaboration (working together, not with) between HEI tutors and school mentors.

Using the ‘Third Space’ to enable this collaboration.

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WHAT WE DID

Timing – January – December 2012.

Observation of meeting between HEI tutors and school mentors.

Strand meetings – SEN, literacy, behaviour management, EAL, coaching and mentoring, noticing as a disciplined enquiry.

Interviews of members of these groups.7

TERMINOLOGY – INTERVIEW FINDINGS

Boundary crossing

Third space

Expansive learning

Enactment

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FINDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS An ambitious undertaking

A scary undertaking

Getting everybody on board

Working together or working with?

Difficulties/drawbacks (and solutions)

Reflection 9

SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

Hints rather than conclusions and statements for reflection rather than absolutes.Developing partnership through Third Space activity requires vision.That vision requires an enhanced and ‘deeper’ interpretation of ‘working together’ rather than ‘working with’.Working together through Third Space activity requires participants: to embrace change; to challenge their own assumptions; time.Working together through Third Space activity is complex despite the appearance of simplicity.Working together through Third Space activity needs to be founded upon a common moral purpose.

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SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS Effective partnership between schools and

universities has been evolving over time, suggesting that working together through Third Space is potentially the next part of that evolution.

Working together through Third Space activity is an ambitious ideal.

Some drawbacks/difficulties are: getting everybody on board; time; finance; quality control; logistics; conflict.

Benefits outweigh difficulties. All concerned benefit: school staff, university staff, student teachers, pupils.

Slow, measured process is key. Developing partnership through Third Space activity

is worth the effort; it can be transformative to all concerned.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Developing partnership through Third Space activity is ambitious, but it is possible. It creates a passion within those participating which brings rewards: rejuvenation, personal reward, excitement, fulfilment, challenge, enrichment.

The philosophy behind the concept of developing partnership suggests that generalisability is possible to other HEIs and schools, accepting that different circumstances would allow the project to evolve in different ways, relevant to those circumstances.

As teacher education in England undergoes yet more change with the introduction of School Direct it is recommended that the philosophy within ‘working together’ through Third Space activity continues to be embraced and researched as a fundamental way of achieving excellent teacher education and training of student teachers, and hence excellent teachers of children and young people. 12

DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIP THROUGH THIRD SPACE ACTIVITY

The full report of the research can be found at:

http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/Courses/SubjectAreas/Education/Research/TEAN/TeacherEducatorsStorehouse/Partnership/Home.aspx

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DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIP THROUGH THIRD SPACE ACTIVITY

Questions for discussionDo you work together or with?Do you seek a ‘Third Space’?Do you feel that this notion, however ambitious could be extended? How does School Direct affect this?

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Moje, E. B., McIntosh Ciechanowski, K., Kramer, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), 38-71.

Soja, E. (1996). Third space: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real and imagined places (Malden, MA, Blackwell)

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