The idea of the Deanery as a hybrid space was offered to Headteachers of
partnership schools in February 2010. It was presented to them as a multilayered
system of distributed expertise, where the three layers were: ITE, continuing pro-
fessional learning and research. Its potential for enhancing the work of all partners
was recognised immediately by the Headteachers and after three years of building
common knowledge across the different practices involved, through meetings and
discussion, the Deanery was officially launched in November 2013. All nine Oxford
secondary schools signed up to it, and the intention is to involve all partnership
schools over the next few years.
The Deanery was conceived as a site of intersecting, but different, practices with
each bringing the specialist expertise it offers to local education. The objects of
activity, when practitioners in the different practices have engaged in knowledge
work together, have included the learning trajectories of student teachers on the
post-graduate programme; newly qualified teachers in schools; changes in ways of
teaching physics in a school science department; annual action research fellow-
ships; collaboration to ensure that senior practitioners can bring their expertise to
bear on university research on school exclusion; and the development of collabo-
rative practices in schools.
Key to all of these, and the other activities also undertaken, is that attention is
paid to what matters for all collaborators. School-based practitioners are partici-
pants in Deanery activities and their professional knowledge and motives count in
that work. At the same time university tutors are explicit about what matters to them
when collaborating with teachers and school leaders, and do not politely hold back
if research-based knowledge might be useful to schools or the need to learn more
about what matters for the school.
Some of the most interesting developments have been initiated by school-based
colleagues. These include a 5-year jointly designed programme of support for newly
qualified teachers and a version of the university’s masters programme tailored to the
needs of local schools. Each initiative has been developed by building and drawing
on the common knowledge that consists of the professional motives that shapes each
practice. Colleagues in both sets of practices have been adept at exercising relational
expertise as they do so, taking time to be clear about each others’motives and
ensuring that developments address what matters in each practice. The outcome has
been an ability to exercise relational agency, to expand interpretations of the
problems being worked on and ensure that relevant expertise is brought to bear.
These processes necessarily take time, and they do notfit well with the kind of
business model that seeks profit in every transaction. Nonetheless, they appear to be
meeting needs. The University is delighted with how the Deanery provides
evidence of how it tries to be a local resource as well as a global player in research.
Researchers in the Education Department have ready access to expert school-based
practitioners for reference groups and advice on how schools are interpreting
upcoming education policies and the intention is that student teachers will have
smoother transitions when they move between university and school. Schools
benefit from teachers being engaged with university research as action researchers,
research collaborators and sounding boards for new research-based ideas. Examples
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