Being a Teacher in an SUP and Investigating SUPs Beyond the Continental American Context

• In Event: Surveying the Landscape of Research on School-University Partnerships

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
The purpose of this presentation is to highlight the ways in which the chapters from two sections of the handbook promote a more inclusive and holistic vision of SUPs, and provide examples of efforts designed to create a more equitable and responsive system of education. The editors of these two sections will share analysis and insights from their perspective as editors and framed within the current need to become more inclusive as a field and more just as a society.

Methods and Evidence
The chapters from the sections of the handbook named, respectively, Teachers, Teaching and Learning to Teach in SUPs and Investigating SUPs Beyond the Continental American Context, serve as the body of evidence interrogated in this presentation. The method consists primarily of an analytical narrative review.

Findings and Significance
The chapters in the first section show the breadth of teacher education currently taking place within different types of SUPs. In one chapter, the definition of who is considered a teacher preparation partner is expanded by accessing the wealth of skills and knowledge among community activists, who serve as critical teacher educators and guide teacher candidates’ racial and social justice understandings. Another chapter shares a review of teacher residencies: where they have been and where they are. Teacher residencies serve as one powerful model of SUPs, and the chapter deliberately explores the evolution of teacher residencies in the context of educational equity. The work of supervising teacher candidates is reconceptualized as praxis and viewed as a critical element in school reform in yet another chapter. Finally, the ability to sustain the work of SUPs was shown to be dependent upon an attitude of responsiveness to both societal and contextual challenges in another chapter.

The chapters in the second section recognize the fact that there are many educational partnerships in operation across the globe. Though this section offers just a small glimpse into this vast world, it highlights the need for greater attention to be given to international and global issues in partnerships in future scholarship. One chapter in this section includes a description of four diverse SUPs in Australia that demonstrate how SUPs can enhance experiences for pre-service teachers, promote meaningful learning across a teacher’s career, engage educators in research and evidence-based practice, and foster collaboration between institutions. Another chapter examines partnership settings in the UK, contrasting a small, local partnership with a nationally mandated collaboration. A third chapter spotlights an innovative program of international SUPs that provides many opportunities to engage in cross-cultural experiences thus helping teacher candidates to better understand the cultural and community assets students bring to the classroom.

Finally, another chapter considers the new ways of knowing, challenges to previous ways of thinking and doing, and enhanced engagements across boundaries that might be made possible through international and global partnerships. The chapters in this section make it abundantly clear that SUPs have challenges to address collaboratively and problems to unravel collectively - and these persistent issues are not geographically bound.

Authors

• Sonia E. Janis, University of Georgia

• Janna Dresden, University of Georgia