Chapter 11: Synergy And Transformation: Exploring Boundary-Spanning in One School–University Partnership

This chapter uses boundary-spanning as the central mechanism supporting strong school–university partnerships formed to develop and retain new teachers. Boundary-spanning within our context relates to the ways in which the university and the schools interact collaboratively to address the everchanging educational landscape. The role of the “Instructional Consultants” is the central mechanism through which the collaboration occurs. The people who serve in this role are school-based staff, typically in an administrative role, who are paired with university faculty to design and deliver teacher preparation coursework. The responsibilities of the Instructional Consultant include helping university professors to align course objectives with district goals and providing ongoing feedback to the university instructor regarding program impact. The inclusion of this role within this teacher preparation program has had a measurable impact on the effectiveness and retention of new teaching staff and created the conditions for the growth of this school–university partnership. This case study seeks to uncover how Instructional Consultants perceive this work and how it impacts them both personally and professionally. We conducted extensive interviews with four Instructional Consultants to better understand the complexities inherent in this role and to more fully understand how being an Instructional Consultant may influence the other roles they play. Three themes emerged from the interview data: (a) disintegrating silos, (b) agency and efficacy, and (c) transformation. We discuss how each of these themes relate to some aspect of boundary-spanning.