Fostering Successful Communities of Collaboration Through Educational Partnerships

There is an undisputable need to form collaborative partnerships between schools, families, homes, and communities across the nation. Collaborative educational partnerships are the cornerstone for student success. With increasingly diverse student populations, schools must communicate and collaborate with families and communities to bridge the wide gap that exists between home and school. With a dominant Spanish-speaking population of Mexican descent, as that of children living in the Southern tip of the Texas-Mexican border, known as The Rio Grande Valley, barriers such as low social economic status and limited English proficiency may impede much-needed communication between schools, homes, and communities. These barriers that negatively impede student success must be replaced with strong bridges that support student achievement. Recommendations are anchored in opportunities to increase academic and social partnerships among schools, families, homes, and communities. The premise for establishing educational partnerships is ultimately student achievement and success.

Barriers to decolonising educational partnerships in global health

Global health partnerships between high-income countries and low/middle-income countries can mirror colonial relationships. The growing call to advance global health equity therefore involves decolonising global health partnerships and outreach. Through decolonisation, local and international global health partners recognise non-western forms of knowledge and authority, acknowledge discrimination and disrupt colonial structures and legacies that influence access to healthcare.Despite these well-described aims, the ideal implementation process for decolonising global health remains ill-defined. This ambiguity exists, in part, because partners face barriers to adopting a decolonised perspective. Such barriers include overemphasis on intercountry relationships, implicit hierarchies perpetuated by educational interventions and ethical dilemmas in global health work.In this article, we explore the historical entanglement of education, health and colonialism. We then use this history as context to identify barriers that arise when decolonising contemporary educational global health partnerships. Finally, we offer global health partners strategies to address these challenges.

China’s Humanistic Zhong-Yong Approach to Educational Partnerships for International Development in Post-Covid-19: Confucian and Ubuntu Perspectives on Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa

Based on broad observations of the development of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa over a decade, this article focuses on educational partnerships between Chinese and African educational institutions and their implications for international development, as they relate to international development in the era of post-Covid-19. The author identifies the Confucian Zhong-Yong approach to educational partnerships through Confucius Institutes and Classrooms in Africa, a pragmatic model for educational development centered on Confucianism. Three core characteristics of Confucian educational partnerships – demand-driven, ethics-based and pragmatic – are seen as the key to the success of such partnerships. Reflecting on Ubuntu from a Confucian perspective, the author concludes that China’s humanistic Zhong-Yong approach to partnerships has a unique potential to re-envision education for international development in ways that may be of interest to such international developmental agencies as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the World Bank, and the United Nations.

Focus on Global Education: Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Macro and Micro Levels of Effective School Libraries from an Information Science Perspective

The present article describes a longitudinal, mixed methods, case study of Kansas, USA, school libraries. The overall aim in the study is to explore from an information science perspective the school librarian’s involvement in information literacy instruction, student learning and achievement and meaningful educational partnerships. Sources and types of evidence from this five-year investigation are made available on a website with the intent of contributing to a strong community of evidence-based practice.

Boundary Spanning Roles and Power in Educational Partnerships

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer promising approaches to improve educational outcomes. Navigating boundaries between contexts is essential for RPP effectiveness, yet much work remains to establish a conceptual framework of boundary spanning in partnerships. Our longitudinal comparative case study draws from our experiences as graduate student boundary spanners in three long-term partnerships to examine boundary spanning roles in RPPs, with particular attention to the ways in which power permeates partnership work. Using qualitative, critically reflexive analysis of meeting artifacts and field notes, we found that our boundary spanning roles varied along five spectrums: institutional focus, task orientation, expertise, partnership disposition, and agency. Our roles were shaped by the organizational, cultural, relational, and historical features of the partnerships and contexts of interaction. We aim to promote the development of effective RPP strategies by leveraging the perspectives and positionality of graduate students in order to advance understanding of boundary spanning roles.

An Historical Perspective of the School-University Partnership Movement in American Education and the Current Landscape

This introductory chapter provides readers with an historical perspective of the school-university partnership movement in American education covering periods from the early 1800s to 2020. Seven phases of the movement are delineated and discussed. The current landscape of different types of educational partnerships prevalent today in the U.S. are identified and described, along with remarks made about the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for expanded partnerships and research. The chapter concludes with the author's perspective on partnerships, the context and the book's focus on research and partnerships for educational change and improvement. Also, comments are made regarding an emerging trend toward the convergence and alignment of K-12 and higher education (13-16).

Fostering Successful Communities of Collaboration Through Educational Partnerships

There is an undisputable need to form collaborative partnerships between schools, families, homes, and communities across the nation. Collaborative educational partnerships are the cornerstone for student success. With increasingly diverse student populations, schools must communicate and collaborate with families and communities to bridge the wide gap that exists between home and school. With a dominant Spanish-speaking population of Mexican descent, as that of children living in the Southern tip of the Texas-Mexican border, known as The Rio Grande Valley, barriers such as low social economic status and limited English proficiency may impede much-needed communication between schools, homes, and communities. These barriers that negatively impede student success must be replaced with strong bridges that support student achievement. Recommendations are anchored in opportunities to increase academic and social partnerships among schools, families, homes, and communities. The premise for establishing educational partnerships is ultimately student achievement and success.