A Symbiotic Relationship or a Marriage of Convenience: an examination of the close links that exist between a university department of education and a local middle school

Abstract

The purpose of this short paper is to state the need for a detailed evaluation of links between schools and ITT (Initial Teacher Training) institutions, and schools in general, to describe the range of links that exist between Sheffield University. Division of Education and a local middle school, to evaluate the links in terms of mutual understanding and shared objectives, and to attempt to identify the factors that make the link so productive and increasingly successful. The article takes as its starting point the work of Huberman & Levinson (1984) in their seminal article entitled “An empirical model for exchanging educational knowledge between universities and schools” where they examine knowledge transfer and inter‐organisational theory.