Chapter 2: From Project-Based Clinical Experiences to Collaborative Inquiries: Pathways to Professional Development Schools

In recent years, unprecedented and long-overdue attention has been given to the role of clinical practice in teacher preparation. Calls for earlier and more robust fieldwork alongside increasingly intentional and mutually beneficial partnerships with PK–12 sites seem to have been answered almost before they were made with the structures provided by professional development schools (PDSs). These policy and practice cries are impacted by challenging financial and political realities for universities and PK–12 schools, as well as by the fact that clinical and partnership efforts operate across these distinct institutions, which have similar but not absolutely aligned missions. If the promise of PDSs, particularly as sites for effective clinical experiences, is ever going to be realized, those in our field need not simply a single model of partnership but multiple pathways to such collaborations and the boundaryspanning roles that will support these structures. The goal of this chapter is to share a broader notion of “PDS” that contributes to the efforts of practitioners, policymakers, and scholars to “turn teacher preparation upside down” (NCATE, 2010, p. ii). The authors draw from data of four partnership types from three teacher education programs at two universities that fall along a continuum of PDSs. In addition, an example project generated by one submodel is included. These illustrate a developmental framework for building mutually beneficial relationships that enhance the engagement of all stakeholders and acknowledge the need for differentiation and flexibility in clinical practice and PDS work.