From University to Community: Strengthening Teacher Education Through Partnerships 

The initial focus of this blog post was to share reflections on a small, funded project from Summer 2024. The Kickstarter project aimed to bring together colleagues and partners from different curricular areas and disciplines within and across the University and external agencies for enrichment-focused activities for student teachers and colleagues. This experience would complement the learning from the students’ Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes while opening the door to networking and collaboration with externals who could support them as they move into professional practice. However, the project’s outcomes were far more significant than initially anticipated, revealing the potential for intra- and inter-institutional work in teacher education and the wider student population. The project also underscored the importance of the university as a civic and social ‘anchor’ or hub, serving academic communities and meaningfully engaging with local people and places. 

This blog post will first reflect on the Kickstarter project before exploring the value of collaborative practices and partnership working. It will also examine the role of universities as key actors in fulfilling their civic responsibilities, with a particular focus on what this could mean for teacher education providers. 

Kickstarter: Creative Curriculum 

At the heart of becoming a teacher in Scotland is the need for teachers, including student teachers, to develop the knowledge, understanding, and pedagogic skills to respond to contemporary issues and opportunities. The Professional Standards set out the competencies all teachers – from pre-service to in-service – must demonstrate. Two key areas of the Standard for Provisional Registration (SPR) (GTCS, 2021), 2.1.1 and 2.1.3, relate to Curriculum and Pedagogy, explicitly referencing interdisciplinary learning (IDL). However, creating meaningful IDL experiences, particularly in ITE, can be challenging, requiring providers to find opportunities for students to develop these essential skills. 

Within the School of Education, a group of colleagues devised the Empowering ITE through Interdisciplinary Partnerships project, known as Kickstarter: Creative Curriculum. This innovative project consisted of three themed days: Film and Screen, Digital Learning, and Scots Culture. The central aim of Kickstarter was to enrich teacher education through collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches, exploring ways to enhance the ITE curriculum. The key objectives were: 

• To provide three days of professional learning for students and colleagues, drawing on wider partnerships and collaborations; 
• To design workshops that were practical and modelled good practice in networking and collaboration;
• To ensure a multi- and interdisciplinary approach that would complement the existing Teacher Education content within the PGDE and MEduc programmes. 

The project sought to inspire new ideas in teacher education by fostering collaboration across disciplines, leveraging expertise from within the School, the wider University, and external partnerships. Each day combined hands-on activities, critical discussions, and reflection, with a strong focus on classroom practice. 

Kickstarter was a valuable experience for all involved – workshop hosts, school partners, students, and colleagues across the University. However, ensuring that multi-partner and collaborative events are both meaningful and impactful requires significant groundwork to align goals and expectations. 

Reflecting on the event, two fundamental questions emerged: 

1. Who are our partners in teacher education? 
2. What does (or could) partnership and collaboration look like in teacher education? 

While these questions may seem straightforward, they take on new complexity in the context of ongoing discussions about revitalising teacher education and strengthening a variety of forms of engagement with school partners.  

Defining and structuring partnerships in Teacher Education 

While partnerships are widely recognised as a strength within the education sector, understanding who is involved, what these relationships entail, and how they function is often more complex than it first appears (Mutton, 2015). In ITE, partnerships traditionally centre on student placements, focusing on the mentoring, support, and assessment of pre-service teachers. While these elements are fundamental, there is a need to explore the broader concept of partnership and collaboration in teacher education—what they mean in practice and how they can be more effectively integrated. 

A growing body of literature highlights the civic responsibilities of universities, framing them as ‘anchors’ for interdisciplinary collaboration and improved educational outcomes and research (see O’Farrell et al., 2022). For this discussion, we take the idea of the university as a hub – a place with strong civic foundations that fosters engagement beyond academia. Traditionally, universities have worked closely with communities to expand educational opportunities, serving and supporting local contexts (O’Farrell et al., 2022). However, as higher education increasingly adopts flexible and digital approaches – especially since 2020 – the definition of ‘community’ has evolved, with many students now engage primarily or entirely through digital platforms rather than physical campuses (JISC 2023; Salama and Hilton, 2023). 

The idea of universities as hubs for collaboration raises several important considerations: 

1. Institutional Role – How can universities serve as centres for interdisciplinary innovation while maintaining strong external connections? 
2. Impact on Local, National, and International Communities – How can expertise generated through partnerships influence educational and social outcomes beyond the university itself? 
3. Long-Term Vision – How can sustained collaboration anchor the university’s role in driving educational innovation? 

These questions are essential as we rethink approaches to partnership working, drawing on the expertise and resources that universities offer. In the context of ITE, university-led collaboration has the potential to drive meaningful change—not just at the start of a teacher’s career but throughout their professional journey. 

Conclusion 

The Kickstarter project provided a valuable opportunity to reimagine interdisciplinary collaboration in teacher education, creating space for educators, students, and external partners to co-construct ideas and approaches. It demonstrated how enriching the ITE curriculum through cross-sector partnerships can model best practices in professional networking, problem-solving, and curriculum innovation. It also led to the emergence of questions to ponder for not only the future work of the project but our approach to engaging with partners and the responsibilities that we, as a School of Education, have to our communities and partners.  

Moving forward, there is certainly scope for ITE providers to explore their role as collaborative hubs, ensuring that interdisciplinary and cross-sector engagement is embedded meaningfully in teacher education. This requires not only ongoing investment in partnerships but also a re-evaluation of how we define and facilitate collaboration across subjects, sectors, and institutions. By doing so, we can better equip future educators with the skills, networks, and experiences they need to thrive in an ever-evolving educational landscape. 

Reference List 

Angela Jaap