Transitions to school-college partnership: a phenomenological inquiry

This study took place during the first 2 years of a partnership between three cooperating elementary schools and a college of education. The purpose of the interpretive phenomenological study was to learn from cooperating teachers, student-teachers and college instructors about the transitions that accompanied the change in the culture of schooling they experienced through the newly established partnership, and to attempt to understand their experiences through their explanations of the transitions they identified. On the basis of the data analysis, we identified seven transitions experienced by the participants: From discrete processes to parallel, open processes. From individual work to collaboration. From seeing the other as an object to seeing the other as a critical friend. From leading to responding. From the conception of knowledge as an object to the conception of knowledge as a process. From viewing learning as a linear process to viewing it as a spiral process. From viewing their work environment as a closed system to viewing it as an open system. In this paper, we describe and provide examples of each of these transitions and show how they are interrelated and how each one is both a cause and an effect of the others. These findings increased our knowledge about how the school and college altered each others consciousness.