Dynamics in District–University Partnerships Focused on Leadership for Equity

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of district–university partnerships at the onset of a multi-year grant-funded initiative focused on leadership for equity. Using three illustrative partnership cases, we investigated district–university collaboration through the lens of mutualism, or the mutually beneficial nature of the relationship. Our data analysis revealed the following dynamics as important for the development of mutualism: shared commitment, shared ownership, new collaborative structures, reciprocal benefits, and boundary spanners. We approached partnerships as learning processes, and used a typology of interorganizational learning to understand better how these dynamics sustained the partnerships. Our study contributes to the field’s knowledge of the development of formal partnerships in general as well as of partnerships explicitly focused on equity specifically.