Learning cultures: understanding learning in a school-university partnership

ABSTRACT

Improving the learning experiences of student teachers in a school-university partnership has always been an agenda for those involved in initial teacher preparation (ITP) programmes. In the pursuit of this improvement, this paper presents an argument in favour of a cultural approach to understand learning at school placements and university in a school-university partnership. Drawing on data from a completed qualitative field study of a group of student teachers enrolled in a one-year teacher training programme, a learning culture approach is used to illustrate that learning through participating in the practices within the learning sites in a school-university partnership is central to becoming a teacher. Accepting this premise, the article attempts to discuss the implications of using a cultural approach for understanding the learning process involved in a school-university partnership. The article also addresses the issue of ways in which we could advance our thinking in improving valuable learning experiences of student teachers through using a cultural approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning cultures
• school-university partnership
• teacher education
• teachers’ learning
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adeline Yuen Sze Goh

Adeline Yuen Sze Goh is a Senior Assistant Professor at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. She gained her PhD from the Institute of Lifelong Learning at the University of Leeds, UK. She has many years of experience in training vocational and technical education teachers. Her research interests include workplace learning, transition from education to work, teacher education and professional learning.