Communities”recognized“the complex, diverse and changing contexts in which
teachers work means that they need to revise, add to and enhance their knowledge
and skills continually throughout their careers and engage in different forms of
professional development according to their own and their pupils’needs.”The
conference web site unpacks the theme further recognizing the need for“blended
professional learning” that demands collaborative approaches and calls “for
stronger partnerships that help connect teachers with their peers in their own school
and in other schools and enable greater interaction and interdependence between
different teacher education providers and stakeholders”. The conference organizers
refer to The Council of the European Union’s conclusions to its 20th May 2014
statement on effective teacher education (2014/C 183/05) that recognizes the
potential of enhanced cooperation, partnership and networking with a broad range
of stakeholders. The Council’s conclusions acknowledged that teacher education
programmes: “should draw on teachers’ own experience and seek to foster
cross-disciplinary and collaborative approaches, so that education institutions and
teachers regard it as part of their task to work in cooperation with relevant
stakeholders such as colleagues, parents and employers.”
How to establish and sustain partnerships between teacher education providers
and schools, across the different levels of the education sector, amongst clusters of
schools at the same and different schooling levels, and between schools and their
communities—is currently a focus for policy development and research worldwide.
This section illustrates some of the diverse ways this can be achieved. The chapters
provide an indication of the breadth of possibilities—the breadth of theoretical and
practical foci that are available and can usefully be taken up as a forum for part-
nership and collaboration.
References
Association for Teacher Education in Europe, The. (2015). Teacher education through
partnerships and collaborative learning communities [Conference Theme] at the 40th
Annual Conference, Glasgow. Retrieved from http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/
atee2015/conferencetheme/
Ball, S. J. (2007).Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Cahn, E. (2000).No more throwaway people: The co-production imperative. Washington, DC:
Essential Books.
Coote, A. (2002, May).Claiming the health dividend: Unlocking the benefits of NHS spending
[Report Summary]. Retrieved from https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_
publication_file/claiming-health-dividend-unlocking-benefits-nhs-spending-summary-anna-
coote-kings-fund-1-may-2002_0.pdf
Council of the European Union, The. (2014, May).The conclusions to its 20th statement on
effective teacher education, 2014/C 183/05. Retrieved fromhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?qid=1480301117938&uri=CELEX:52014XG0614(05)
Fairclough, N. (2008).Partnership, governance and participatory democracy: A critical discourse
analysis perspective on the dialectics of regulation and democracy[PowerPoint slides].
206 Part III: Teacher Education, Partnerships and Collaboration