Growing university–school partnerships

The ways in which the Science Teacher Education Partnerships with Schools (STEPS) project identified and represented a guide for growing university–school partnerships are presented in this chapter. Based on evidence from the STEPS research into the independent school-based science teacher education programs of five Australian universities, components for initiating and sustaining successful partnerships were identified and described. These components are: (1) partner identification of aims and rationale for entering the partnership; (2) institutional requirements and constraints that govern partnership activities; (3) the nature and extent of the relationship between partners; (4) the nature and quality of the learning; and (5) a commitment to action to achieve the desired outcomes. The relevance of these components across three phases of partnership work, initiation, implementation, and evaluation, is also described alongside concomitant Action Planning Tools that can assist partners’ discussion and negotiation of the phases and components. Collectively, the components and phases form the Growing University–School Partnerships (GUSP) element of the STEPS Interpretive Framework. The GUSP encompasses essential planning aspects and helps to ensure that all partners’ needs and roles are considered and that the partnership achieves the desired benefits for all. Initiating, maintaining, and growing partnerships can be challenging; however, the process and tools summarised in GUSP and presented in this chapter provide a guide for others wishing to establish a new partnership or to review and/or develop an existing partnership.