Collaboration and the Negotiation of Power

Abstract

This paper deals with the study of the outcomes and the degree of collaboration achieved in a project involving a planning group of university- and school-based participants and education students. The group was formed to consider how the practicum component of a course leading to a Graduate Diploma in Education might be improved through collaboration between university- and school-based educators. The literature on collaboration and on cultural politics comprises the conceptual framework for the analysis of the data collected. Cultural politics suggests that collaboration involves a struggle over meanings in the interest of particular groups. Based on an analysis of the events in the project, the impact of institutional arrangements and the perceptions of the participants, implications are drawn for what needs to be done to further develop collaborative work between educational institutions. It is suggested that collaboration may be the discourse for the transformation of institutional cultures and subjectivities in universities and schools, in order to attain the benefits of working together which are unavailable through traditional teacher education practices and structures.