You make the road by walking: A case study of partnership and collaboration

Abstract

A Sage expression, you make the road by walking, captures the nature of accompaniment in partnership development. The purpose of this action research project was to examine the partnership of a city school and an urban university as one that engaged mutual generation of knowledge from all participants. Action research, where participants are coequals in decision making, enhances the co-construction of knowledge and applied practice when stakeholders work to achieve more practical goals. Two high school co-instructors and a university faculty member examined what initially brought them together—a classroom instructional need. While designing and implementing an investigation of the use of class instructional time, they simultaneously conducted a self-study action research project about the dynamics of their partnership and how to improve it. Critical interviews revealed challenges to integrating research findings into practice as well as convergent benefits of partnership development that may be relevant to partnerships of all kinds.