Partnership in Teacher Education: A Theoretical and Practical Analysis

The aim of this study is to discuss theoretical and practical issues of the partnership in teacher education. A brief background of the debate in the last years is presented, questions about the partnership concept are introduced, the experience of the Brazilian university performing the inter-institutional work is analyzed and an overview is given of how the issue has been addressed in Québec. The current study seeks to note controversies and possible achievements of teachers in their struggles for the greater social approbation of the teaching profession. The research process benefited from documentary analysis, on-site observations and interviews; the last ones carried out in Brazil. The concept of partnership shows ambiguity. On the one hand, it is a strong ally for the implementation of official educational reforms, which puts it in scene between universities and schools. On the other hand, as a collaborative practice between the researchers and the school teachers, it helps to create new theoretical and practical basis for the initial and extended formation of the teaching professionals, in which academic knowledge and experience are articulated. In the case here analyzed, in the Brazilian scenario, the partnership helps to introduce innovations through institutional arrangements with other rationality, by which teachers are valued as collaborators in the processes of teacher training. Thus, we can affirm that the partnership is a relatively recent practice in the field of education, which involves tensions between official interests; and objectives of both collaborative work and collective struggles for the appreciation of the teaching profession of researchers at universities and teachers at schools.