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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactions among school and university personnel in a Nebraska Network for Educational Renewal (NeNER) middle school-university partnership and develop a grounded theory that might explain how those interactions impact the development of that partnership. A qualitative grounded theory methodology was used. Data were collected over a 12 month period in the form of in-depth interviews, researcher's field notes, and artifacts including agendas and minutes from meetings, memos, and e-mail messages between participants.
Ten participants from the NeNER partner middle school agreed to be interviewed. These included eight cooperating teachers, the school principal, and his assistant principal. The Director of the Middle Level Education Undergraduate Program and the Dean of the Teachers College also agreed to be interviewed.
Five theoretical propositions were generated by the study which included (a) differences in school and university cultures, external demands, educational philosophy, and changing expectations and requirements as well as the existence of middle school and secondary school orientations in the same school, may generate conditions where participants in a middle school-university partnership must engage in managing those differences; (b) the degree to which participants in a middle school-university partnership manage differences may be impacted by the level of autonomy and authority participants are accorded by the leadership of the partnership; (c) the degree to which participants in a middle school-university partnership manage differences may be impacted by time, participants' feelings of self-efficacy based upon personal motivation, capacity for change, and prior experiences. For those participants associated with effective interdisciplinary teams, managing of differences may also be impacted by feelings of collective efficacy; (d) participants in a middle school-university partnership may employ a variety of interpersonal and collaborative strategies as they attempt to manage change; (e) when participants in a middle school-university partnership successfully manage change, there may be increased comfort levels for the participants, greater feelings of empowerment, and increased efforts at inquiry about teaching and learning.
