ABSTRACT
This chapter presents especially for readers interested in questions of partnership-building, practice-focused program development, and institutionalization, and for those who simply want a point of comparison to their own work. The journey to grow a strong partnership community in support of teacher education and student learning in an urban setting such as teachers is filled with questions and challenges, with guideposts sometimes few and far between. The question of what roles and management structure would support the start-up of partnership in pursuit of the goal to build a new model of teacher preparation nested in powerful practice and student learning loomed large at the outset. An additional question concerns the preparation of students to engage the different social worlds beyond the neighborhood. The growth of the partnership community makes possible this evolution towards a more student-centered stance in the teacher preparation curriculum and overall pedagogy, helping it becomes at the same time more civic- and community-minded as well as discipline-based.
