A schools-university partnership across five countries in the South Pacific.

Abstract

Educational systems accept as fundamental that elementary and secondary school teachers need staff development opportunities. For teachers working in remote South Pacific island countries, however, meaningful and affordable inservice opportunities are often difficult to obtain and rarely experienced because of the large geographical distance and the technologically poor environment involved. One feasible solution to this problem involves assistance from a provider such as a university that has the resources, expertise and willingness to provide such staff development opportunities in a university-schools partnership. This concept is not new to education. University-school partnerships have been a major focus in education (Goodlad, 1985, Gross, 1988; Holmes Group, 1990; National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE], 2001) and partnership research has been reported in various education forums (Goodlad, 1993; Hendrix & Kinsey, 2002; Leiberman, 1992; McBee & Moss, 2002; Sirotnik & Goodlad, 1988; Sommerfeld, 1993; Su, 1991; Teitel, 2001). Many studies have identified key variables in the partnership dynamic. Su (1991) condensed from the literature four necessary characteristics of successful collaborative partnerships. These characteristics include a shared vision of the future, simultaneous renewal, an ongoing evaluation, and symbiotic mutualism. Su noted that having both the university and the schools working to accomplish a clearly defined purpose in the partnership is obviously a basic requirement for success