Creating, Sustaining, and Enhancing Purposeful School-University Partnerships: An Introduction

Creating, Sustaining, and Enhancing Purposeful School-University Partnerships: Building Connections Across Diverse Educational Systems is a deep dive into third space school-university partnerships in teacher education. Building on existing literature, this book explores how partnerships can be created and sustained, why they are important, and who they can benefit. As the introduction to the book, this chapter highlights the heterogenous examples of partnerships that are presented throughout the book to reinforce the wide variety of possible approaches that can be taken. Indeed, this variation is essential, as successful partnerships need to be sensitive to their context and relevant to the needs of all stakeholders. The chapter also explores the catalysts for the book’s creation as a means for understanding the antecedent work and its significance. The accounts of purposeful school-university partnerships shared throughout this book, and briefly outlined in this chapter, are inspiring and thoughtful contributions to an expanding literature base delving into the significance and importance of meaningful collaborations that build connections across all aspects of education.