Making Sense of the Big Picture: What the Literature Says

Abstract

Community partnerships are not a new concept. What is known is that partnerships are contextual, and therefore, no partnerships are the same. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to investigate what research suggests to enhance successful partnerships. From a ‘futures perspective’, partnerships are ideal for implementing education curricula, and megatrends predict that in the future, education departments need to be prepared for a quality of life with limited world resources and increased significance of social relationships. Specifically within teacher education, literature suggests there are three elements for successful partnerships between schools and universities: coherence and integration, professional experience that links the theory with practice, and new relationships. Successful partnerships that espouse these elements increase the chance of reaching the hybrid space ideal.