Chapter 3: The Work and Insights of Professional Development School Boundary Spanners in Clinical Teacher Education

The key to improving education and clinical teacher education partnerships is to facilitate the mutual understanding of participants involved and to find strategies to bridge differences. Educators involved in clinical preparation in school partnerships and professional development schools (PDS) need resources to promote authentic collaboration, and the concept of a boundary spanner is such a tool. Stevens (1999) describes the PDS boundary spanner as one who commutes both figuratively and in reality across public school and university boundaries. Professional development schools consist of collaborations across institutions whose missions, organizational structures, and cultures are distinct and which, in some ways, may conflict (Sandholtz & Finan, 1990). Partners in PDS schools may encounter hidden barriers and mismatched perspectives because of differing emphases across contexts (Stevens, 1999). For this reason, we have found the work and insights of boundary spanners to be particularly beneficial in the creation and operation of a PDS network.