Learning Partnerships

Abstract

The notion of a ‘learning partnership’ beautifully encapsulates the leap made from pedagogy to andragogy within notions of adult learning: the qualitative differences in how children and adults learn (Knowles, 1980). It appears a stretch to imagine a real sense of partnership between a teacher and a room full of pupils and fortunately that is not our starting point. Our initial task is to construct a partnership between learner and enabler, student and practice teacher, mentor and mentee. We are dealing with how best to enable adults to develop a learning partnership, whilst reflecting on the impact of pedagogical experiences. This chapter aims to explore some key ideas in the construction of a learning partnership which, for all of our talk about partnership, can often be unequal in many regards. Having looked at different aspects of good practice in learning partnerships this chapter will later consider some specific aspects of mentoring, and the chapter as a whole tries to unpick how the notion of partnership can help learners learn. We shall define a learning partnership within social work practice as ‘a constructive relationship centred on enabling learning where partners manage the process of utilising learning opportunities for reflection, development and the evaluation and evidencing of professional practice’.