CHAPTER 7. CUNNIFF, D. - PARTNERSHIPS WITH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TO ENHANCE THE TEACHING/LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Oct 15, 2026

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Partnerships between universities and school districts are examined as a strategy to improve teaching and learning experiences through cooperation among teachers, students, and leadership teams. The literature review explains how developing partnerships depends on shared cooperation norms, reducing self-interest, and forming teams with appropriate demographic composition. It also highlights the role of aligning school culture and mission with organizational performance, using accreditation, professional development research, and action research applied to PreK-12 settings. Case models from multiple universities and districts illustrate scholarship-supported student participation and adopt-a-school mentoring approaches.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages8

Reading Time20 min

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30 Partnerships with Teachers and Students to Enhance the Teaching/Learning Experience

7.3 Review of the Literature

7.4 Adopt-A-School

CHAPTER 7. CUNNIFF, D. (SEPTEMBER 2011) . UNIVERSITY 30 PARTNERSHIPS WITH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TO ENHANCE THE TEACHING/LEARNING EXPERIENCE local concerns. As a result, school districts seek partnerships with key stakeholders such as universities. This paper describes several ways this process can be undertaken. Many of these partnerships are an outgrowth of teacher education programs. Often, student teachers identify areas where their university can make a contribution to school site councils and leadership teams in coaching team and administrative leaders, as well as addressing curricular and other educational issues. 7.3 Review of the Literature Developing partnerships involves the promotion of cooperation. The organization✬s life depends on member cooperation (Simon, 1976) . The university, in coming into a school district, assumes the responsibility of creating cooperation among its members. Research has shown that reducing people✬s focus on their own self-interest is critical to developing a positive team (Frank, Gilovich, and Regan, 1993) . The team✬s makeup is also critical. Diversely demographic teams are less likely to develop cooperative norms than are homogeneous groups (Chatman and Flynn, 2001) . The university participants must devise ways to instill cooperative norms in groups, particularly when groups are made up of diverse members. By focusing on a common issue or problems, the organizational leaders can instill a commonality of purpose among members (Chatman et al. , 1998) . Cooperation can also be enhanced by teaching people values, facts, and skills that promote cooperation, such as the importance of action research and applying that research in the school or district (Cialdini, 2001) . Each school has its own culture. It is up to the university to identify that culture and understand the mission statement and vision for the school selected for partnership. According to Kotter and Heskett (2002), culture is most closely related to organizational performance when three criteria are met. First, the culture should be strategically relevant in that the behaviors that are emphasized and rewarded are actually the ones necessary to accomplish pressing and relevant organizational objectives or learning outcomes. Second, the culture should be strong, and people agree what is important and care. Third, a core value needs to focus, over time, on innovation, adaptation and change if the school is to reach high levels of performance such as distinguished school status (Kotter and Heskett, 2002) . Emerging partnership models could bene✜t from partnership literature focused on use of accreditation standards to improve program implementation and record keeping and the utilization of research on professional development, policy and practice in PreK-12 schools. Occasionally, it is possible to ✜nd similar core values in both the school district and the university. One such university is National University based in La Jolla, California, whose core values include quality, access, relevance, accelerated pace and community. The community value has not only included the university community, but has reached out into the local neighborhood school districts as well. The Faculty in this institution has embarked on several formal and informal partnerships with school districts up and down the state of California and Nevada. Additional collaborative partnerships with school districts can be found around the United States. The University of Arizona has started ✏The Pathways Program✑ in Tucson, which partners with local school districts to o✛er graduate programs to bachelor✬s level practitioners in school and is now attempting to expand their program to include the other training programs in the state. They are considering adding graduate level slots for ✏grow your own✑ students. Arizona State University (ASU) has a partnership with the Arizona Department of Education to provide a part-time master✬s degree program for speech

FAQs

What is the central purpose of university and school district partnerships discussed in this chapter?

The chapter focuses on using partnerships to enhance the teaching and learning experience by building cooperation among key stakeholders such as universities, teachers, and students.

How does the literature describe cooperation norms and what helps develop them?

Cooperation is strengthened by promoting shared responsibility, reducing self-interest, designing teams that can develop cooperative norms, and teaching values, facts, and skills that support cooperative behavior.

What practical partnership examples are provided beyond theoretical discussion?

Examples include university programs partnering with local districts to expand graduate opportunities, part-time master’s tracks for specific professions, and scholarship models where students work in the school setting while assisting other students and supporting learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by moss~