Sloan, Ciara (2023) Exploring school-university partnerships: the roles, experiences, and interactions of student teachers, cooperating teachers, and placement tutors. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

The importance of school-university partnerships has featured in teacher education agendas, legislation, and policies in the Republic of Ireland for the past thirty years, with partnerships primarily occurring during Initial Teacher Education programmes. Partnership at this juncture involves placement tutors from universities, cooperating teachers from schools, and student teachers during school placement. Despite the value placed on school-university partnerships, much of the research has highlighted that student teachers receive inequitable support during school placement. This study sought to understand why this may be the case by investigating the experiences of student teachers, cooperating teachers, and placement tutors (the triad) during partnerships, as well as how each triad member perceives their own role and the role of other triad members. Consequently, I aimed to illuminate the challenges and opportunities associated with school-university partnerships. An interpretivist qualitative approach was employed and was structured through the lens of a social theory of learning framework. The research setting was one concurrent post-primary Initial Teacher Education programme and schools linked to the same programme. The participants included four student teachers, four cooperating teachers, and four placement tutors, who took part in semi-structured interviews and focus groups. A qualitative questionnaire also gathered the opinions of eight principals and four pedagogy lecturers. The findings were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three overarching themes were extracted from the dataset. Firstly, ‘the impact of communication on practice’ illustrated that some participants were unaware of guidelines pertaining to school placement, while others revealed they do not engage with the guidelines. Additionally, some participants are reluctant to engage in professional conversations, in part owing to power dynamics or a lack of confidence. Secondly, ‘the complexities of relationships across the landscape of practice’ revealed that each member of the partnership is valued but this materialises in different ways. Time is also a crucial feature in building relationships, but relationships are fragile, with assessment and the goodwill of schools playing a key role in partner interactions. Thirdly, ‘forming and supporting partnerships across the landscape of practice’ shows that most participants believe partnerships are effective, but partnerships are understood differently amongst participants, with some indicating that partnerships can happen beyond school placement. An analysis of the three themes highlighted that there were different levels of access, support, and participation for triad members as they boundary cross during school placement, with some responsibilities claimed, while others were displaced. This resulted in varying levels of partnerships at play. This study makes recommendations based on these findings and contributes to teacher education by providing a frame that helps to understand dyadic and triadic interactions of the triad within a wider landscape of practice.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	school-university partnerships; roles; experiences; interactions; student teachers; cooperating teachers; placement tutors;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	18631
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2024 14:17
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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