Preparing for practice: building positive university-school partnerships

The notion of the school and university partnership in teacher education has a long and sometimes contested history, particularly in relation to the best way to structure and deliver professional experience. The 'HUB' is an Australian State-based initiative designed to bring together universities and schools in order to facilitate increased levels of professional collaboration through partnered approaches. This paper investigates one such partnership which aimed to reorient the role of the classroom teacher from siloed, school-based supervisors to pre-placement facilitators in partnership with university academics. The goal of this partnership was to provide a range of authentic experiences linking theory to practice. Adopting a qualitative research paradigm this case study explores the perceived efficacy and impact of this partnered academic/practitioner approach. Findings show increased levels of confidence, professional awareness and contextual understanding within the student participants engaged with the program.