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School Placement in Initial Teacher Education: Partnership or Paralysis
Authors
Type
Article
Journal Title
Book title
Ireland’s Education Yearbook 2023
Publication Date
2024
Volume
Issue
Start page
228
End page
231
Publication Number of pages
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
The concept of partnership in school placement is not
new to the initial teacher education (ITE) reform agenda
(Furlong et al., 2000). Despite its prevalence in the rhetoric
on placement, the nature of partnerships, the definition
of partners, and the extent to which partnerships are
voluntary or enforced are all far from universally
accepted facts. Harford and O’Doherty (2016) argue that
the partnership metaphor has been applied very loosely
to describe collaboration and consensus, without any real
definition of what is meant by it.
Partnership in school placement is often discussed in
policy documents and guidelines as a fait accompli, but
when we probe the use of the word, we find it can be
applied to many ways of organising collaboration
between higher-education institutions (HEIs) and schools
(Gorman & Furlong, 2023). It can vary in meaning
depending on who uses it, whether site of practice, HEI,
professional body, or student teacher. It can also be used
to reflect distinct interpretations and motivations (Stuart
& Martinez-Lucio, 2004).
If we cannot agree on what partnership is, how can we
hope to understand who the partners are and how they
should fulfil their roles? This article posits that the
confusion around partnership has hindered the
development of school placement into a meaningfully
experienced first step in the continuum of professional
development, resulting in a paralysis of reform in school
placement.
Keywords
initial teacher education, ITE, Partnership in school placement