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2007 ; Darling-Hammond, 2006 ; Day & Smethem, 2010 ). Some of this research has
examined partnership initiatives established for the purpose of developing more
connections between schools and universities in teacher education (Brady, 2002 ;
James & Worrall, 2000 ; Moss, 2008 ; Trent & Lim, 2010 ; Tsui & Law, 2007 ). Most
of these studies identified the benefits of these partnerships, such as transformative
change at both the university level and school level, a bridging of the theory- practice
gap (Baumfield & Butterworth, 2007 ; Kershner, Pedder, & Doddington, 2012 ;
Kruse, 2011 ), facilitating the development of teacher identity, contributing to
teacher socialisation (Kruse, 2011 ) and promoting the learning of preservice teach-
ers, school students, lecturers and teachers (Allen et al., 2013 ; Brady, 2002 ).
There is no consensus in the research literature that school-university partner-
ships automatically lead to better outcomes for all stakeholders (Douglas & Ellis,
2011 ; Johnston, 2010 ; Ledoux & McHenry, 2008 ; McLaughlin & Black-Hawkins,
2007 ; Moss, 2008 ; Smedley, 2010; White, Bloomfield, & Le Cornu, 2010 ). In a
thorough review of literature on university and school partnership, Smedley ( 2001 )
identified a number of impediments to the partnership such as:
... institutional inertia; the low status of teacher education and even lower status of field
work; restructured and expanding workloads of teachers and lecturers; availability of suit-
able staff; the differing school and university cultures; the vulnerability of new ventures; the
maintenance of initial enthusiasms; and, finally, the various financial and political pres-
sures. (p. 203)
Given this finding, some analytical attention should be paid to the operation of
these partnerships to ascertain if there are common factors that contribute to their
effectiveness.
There is existing research that points to some of the factors that contribute to
effective school-university partnerships. Using activity theory as a theoretical lens,
Yamagata-Lynch and Smaldino ( 2007 ) identified three major factors significant to
effective partnerships, namely, communication, a balance between theory and prac-
tice and winning stakeholder commitment. In a similar vein, Edwards, Tsui, and
Stimpson ( 2009 ), who conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature
on school-university partnerships, revealed the four factors that impact on the effec-
tive school-university partnership are collaboration, complementarity, equivalence
and community. Bloomfield ( 2009 ) referred to the time and resource pressures
experienced by both parties as well as highlighting the common understandings and
commitments of the key stakeholders.
In a comprehensive study on school-university partnerships in Australia, Kruger,
Davies, Eckersley, Newell, and Cherednichenko ( 2009 ) found that successful
school-university partnerships were enhanced and sustained through committed
efforts by key individuals involved. They also found that these successful partner-
ships were characterised by conditions of ‘trust, mutuality and reciprocity among
preservice teachers, teachers and other school colleagues and teacher educators’
( 2009 , p. 16) but were also contingent on the provision of effective resources. One
of the study’s key recommendations was the need for conjoint policy development
to guide partnership development beyond individual initiatives (Kruger et al., 2009 ).
T. Loughland and H.T.M. Nguyen