Chapter 14
Repositioning, Embodiment
and the Experimental Space: Refiguring
Student–Teacher Partnerships in Teacher
Education
Helen Cahill and Julia Coffey
14.1 Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to the feminist post-structuralist theory of
change used to inform the pedagogical design of the Learning Partnerships pro-
gram. It analyses data gathered from surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviews
with the school students and trainee teachers involved in various iterations of the
program. The respondents cite the humanising effect of the encounter and point to
the way in which it builds their confidence to communicate with and understand
each other’s perspectives. The process has them rethink who each other are and
who they can‘be’in their encounters. Findings from this research include rec-
ommendations for use of a‘third space’for exploratory exchange between client
and professional as an element within teacher education. It highlights the need to
foster socially critical thinking as well as knowledge and skill development as core
to the teacher development process.
Participants in the Learning Partnerships workshops are positioned as
co-investigators considering matters of shared concern. In this they are positioned
in a way which disrupts the confining binary of teacher–student. They engage in a
number of drama-based tasks in which they depict and deconstruct common pat-
terns of interaction that occur between teachers and students. This process provides
an opportunity for them to examine the discourses that work to limit honest and
helpful exchange in teacher–student relationships. The shared engagement in
deconstruction has a connective and humanising effect. Working in partnership
helps to generate new possibilities in relation to help-seeking and problem-solving.
H. Cahill (&)
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
J. Coffey
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_14
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