Cultural Transformation in an Urban Professional Development Center: Policy Implications for School-University Collaboration

Abstract

Entrenched organizational policies, coupled with significantly different (and to some degree incompatible) institutional and professional cultures, have made educational reform difficult to achieve. In this article, the process of cultural transformation in the redesign of a teacher preparation program involving an urban professional development center is discussed. It is suggested that such school-university partnerships can enhance the education of individual students, provide a variety of professional development activities for all involved, and foster research activities within school environments. Such collaboration can clearly build a cohort of teachers who will be better prepared for the multicultural nature of the public schools of the next century.

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