schools and critically examined these with teachers and faculty staff. Another
course combines the expertise of assessment, literacy, mathematics and arts spe-
cialists with the knowledge and experience of teachers and school leaders to explore
how to accelerate progress for disadvantaged learners.
The Master of Teaching (Primary) is very new and we have already identified a
number of challenges to the‘learning hub’partnership model. First, the enormous
amount of time and energy required to build relationships and develop under-
standings around a new approach to ITE in a truly collaborative manner. The school
and university participants have committed many hours to partnership building and
problem solving, all on top of busy and demanding university and school roles and
responsibilities. Finding time for collaboration was a major challenge and raises the
question about the level of resourcing required for teacher education programmes to
support the development of authentically collaborative university-school practicum
partnerships. Second, while the Adjunct Lecturers were fully engaged in the pro-
gramme, this was not the case for all of the mentors. Hence, a key focus for the next
iteration of the programme is ensuring that the mentor teachers understand the aims
of the programme and the role they play in achieving these aims. Third, as the
numbers of schools partnering with the faculty in teaching the programme grow, so
will the demands on the time and energy of those building relationships and
capability with new partners, while at the same time as sustaining established
partnerships. Issues to do with scalability and sustainability will become more
confronting as the programme becomes more established with an increase in stu-
dent teacher numbers. Finally, we do not know enough about whether or in what
ways the‘learning hub’approach model has influenced MTchg graduates’practice
as beginning teachers. This is an area for future research.
15.6 Conclusion
The University of Waikato and University of Auckland case studies are examples of
how schools and universities have worked together to design and implement pro-
grammes to support student teacher learning through partnership arrangements. In
the two contexts there has been a genuine commitment between the stakeholder
schools and university to raise the expertise of beginning teachers through the
design and co-construction offit for purpose ITE programmes.
Both universities built on established long-term relationships with their local
schools. The practicum innovations have both built on and contributed to mutual
professional respect and trust between all participants—student teachers, school and
university-based participants. The university and school partners have confirmed
their shared commitment to high-quality teacher education programmes and to
high-quality resourcing and have established the long-term shared vision of what is
to be achieved. The new practicum partnership arrangements are still evolving and
all parties recognise that the time, commitment and energy to support this evolution
is significant and should not be underestimated. As Darling Hammond ( 2006 )
234 B. Cooper and L. Grudnoff