Sustaining Productive Collaboration Between Faculties and Schools

Work integrated learning which is terminology now very familiar to all universities' faculty members, has always been integral to initial teacher education programs. As a result of the complexities involved in this field, building effective partnerships with schools continues to be a major focus of education faculties. These complexities around a partnership between two very different institutional contexts require negotiating a relationship that is of value to all involved. The concept of communities of practice can provide a framework to establish the collaboration needed. The Australian Commonwealth government conducted in 2007 a national inquiry into the effectiveness of the teacher education programs in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2007). One of the recommendations from the inquiry was to provide funds directly to Education faculties to assist in the improvement of the professional experience (or practicum) component of teacher education courses. This paper describes and examines a project that was funded and implemented in 2009. Project Supervision aimed to develop professional development materials for school supervisors/mentors. The process to achieve this was designed by the author around a community of practice involving teachers - both experienced and preservice - and teacher educators.