Collaborative working and contested practices: forming, developing and sustaining social partnerships in education

Abstract

Despite a lack of applied research, social partnerships are increasingly being adopted by both government and non‐government agencies to meet localised needs in education and other fields. This article discusses the findings of an investigation of how social partnerships can best be formed, developed and sustained over time. Earlier work identified partnerships arising from community concerns, governmental enactment and negotiation between community and government agencies. However, across these distinct kinds of social partnerships, the partnership work that was central to their operation was particularly relevant. In the study reported here, researchers engaged with ten longstanding social partnerships to elicit, synthesise and verify the principles and practices underpinning their work. The principles and practices that are proposed as most likely to assist the effective formation, development and transformation of social partnerships over time comprise building and maintaining: (i) shared goals; (ii) relations with partners; (iii) capacity for partnership work; (iv) governance and leadership; and (v) trust and trustworthiness. These principles stand as ideals and goals to guide the development and continuity of social partnerships that can support important educational initiatives, and provide bases for evaluating partnership work. However, rather than being benign, this work and these practices are often underpinned by contested relations as much as collaborative work.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation Program of the Australian National Training Authority/Department of Education, Science and Technology as administered by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. We acknowledge the contributions of the ten social partnerships that permitted us to engage them in interviews and in reflecting upon our findings. Also, the detailed and thoughtful comments of the reviewers assisted in the revision of this article.