Partnerships In Math Education: The Power Of Universityschool Collaboration

Everyone is talking about universityschool partnerships. They are popular because they make logical sense. If we want the best teacherpreparation programs, we need to have preservice teachers working in real school environments. Ideally, those environments model what we value.But as Chris Ohana has found from experience, the differences in values within a partnership can erode the goals. The university and the school function differently and these differences extend beyond bureaucratic issues. She has written her book to perform a kind of marriage counseling on what to do and look for once the initial infatuation has worn off. Ohana helps readers to anticipate and understand problems, then to resolve them.She shows how this is done by focusing on the collaboration of two elementary schools and a university in the Midwest. As both a member of the faculty of one of the schools and a member of the university community, she had a unique perspective on issues as the partnership tried to improve the mathematics education of elementary students as well as their teachers. She dedicates a chapter to each major group involvedinservice teachers, preservice teachers, and the universityto indicate their separate roles. Then she demonstrates how the success they achieved in integrating their interests came from respecting boundaries.School administrators, district staff, education department heads, and any member of higher education interested in creating a universityschool partnership would do well to heed Ohana and read Partnerships in Math Education.