Forming Strategic Partnerships: New Results from the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments Participatory Action Research

This research paper investigates the formation of strategic partnerships, as experienced by teams of change agents in academic engineering and computer science. In this qualitative study of twelve teams making cultural, structural, and curricular change at their respective institutions, we examine the process of forming strategic partnerships through three initial stages: identifying potential partners, making an intentional approach, and establishing governance. We find teams have utilized a variety of strategies within each of these stages, such as establishing alignment of goals across the project team, the partner organization, and the home institution. These results delineate practices for initiating strategic partnerships within higher education and encourage faculty to build mutually beneficial strategic partnerships.