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The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At the outset, we hoped the study would provide new teacher support resulting in improved teaching practices, increased job satisfaction and/or increased teacher retention among the target population. With this in mind, our research question was: What structures and supports from a school-university partnership facilitate capacity-building among university teacher education faculty, school and district leaders, mentor teachers, and new teachers in the context of an induction program?

This study used an intervention-centered mode of action research methodology that aims to make systems-level change. This type of action research intends to solve real organizational problems with a focus on conducting “research in action” rather than “research about action” (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014, pp. 5–6). This approach necessitates that data collection and analysis are iterative processes, occurring throughout the research process, instead of solely at the end stages of the research process. Our action research process used Coghlan and Brannick’s (2014) action research cycle model. The cyclical four-step process includes constructing (verifying the problem in the local context), planning action, taking action and evaluating action. Facilitated by the interim director of a Professional development schools (PDS) partnership in the Southeastern United States, a team of co-researchers which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators used action research methodology to create systemic change that enhanced the district’s induction program. We collected data through multiple qualitative methods, including surveys, focus groups, observations and interviews during the course of three action research cycles. These data and our theoretical framework (complex adaptive systems theory and social network theory) informed two major interventions that supported new teachers during the challenging first year of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The interventions and the research process were mutually beneficial for both institutions and contributed to professional learning and growth at the individual, group and system levels. The three major findings described include: (1) engaging in collaborative action research is mutually beneficial for both schools and universities; (2) induction programs benefit from university resources; (3) learning communities build all educators’ professional capacity.

Our research recommendations are: (1) more research is needed on the benefits of school-university partnerships to induction programs; (2) school-university partnerships should leverage action research to improve systems; (3) within school-university partnerships, the connection between collaborative leadership and sustainability requires further research. One limitation was that this study was conducted in a single school-university partnership context involving a large public university and a mid-sized public school district that had a well-established partnership. More induction-centered research is needed in different types of school-university partnership contexts that have varying levels of longevity and partnership structures.

Our recommendations for practice include (1) school-university partnerships should leverage collaborative learning communities to catalyze individual, group and systems-level learning and change, and (2) school-university partnerships must prioritize induction support to strengthen the teaching profession.

Since Hunt’s (2014) literature review on induction support in PDS partnerships, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this research area. This study, which examined induction support in a PDS partnership over a two-year period, makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on induction teacher support in school-university partnership contexts. Facilitated by the interim director of a PDS partnership, a team of co-researchers, which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators, used action research methodology to create systems-level supports that enhanced the district’s induction program.

This article examines how hope for an effective partnership approach to policing is maintained in everyday policing.

Data collection involved 22 qualitative interviews, and observations with police officers and municipal employees in Stockholm, Sweden. It also includes an analysis of their documents.

Using the concept of mechanisms of hope (Brunsson, 2006, 2009), this article explores how police officers and other actors in the security landscape maintain hope in partnership policing despite having compelling reasons to be cynical and sceptical. The findings indicate that mechanism of hope is an important element in the way police handle uncertainty and maintain institutional pressures in their everyday policing practices.

By demonstrating how actors responsible for implementing a partnership approach to policing maintain hope in partnership policing, this article advances our understanding of myths in policing, as well as the institutional settings in which policing is conducted (Crank, 2003). Moreover, this article provides insight into the opportunities and challenges embedded in the social configuration of hope.

Internationalisation in higher education (HE) has always been romanticised and idealised but there has been limited focus on the internationalisation of gender equality and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) certification and the role of international partnerships. Certification and Award Schemes (CAS), such as the Athena Swan Charter, can promote gender equality, best practices exchanges and foster institutional changes. Nevertheless, simply transferring strategies or frameworks without careful consideration of the nuances of the destination context can inadvertently lead to the perpetuation or exacerbation of gender inequalities and reproduce hierarchical relations between the Global South and North. Brazil's cultural and political context highlights the need for adapting the CAS framework to align with the unique conditions of the country, as well as institutional transformations in order to accommodate such a framework. This study aims to critically explore how gender equality and EDI certification can be internationalised in the Global South and how international partnerships can play a role in this process.

Building on a collaborative UK–Brazil funded project on advancing gender equality in Brazilian academia, we critically reflect on the assumptions of the funding call for operationalising international collaborations, and how we built solidarity – informed by our positionalities – against underlying colonial patterns. As part of our partnership, we were consulted to provide feedback on the introduction of an Athena SWAN framework in Brazil. We reflect on how the Athena Swan framework was “internationalised” in Brazil, especially in relation to its focus, the challenges of implementing gender equality and EDI efforts and the conditions required for such efforts to be meaningful in the Brazilian context. Thus, we assess and critically reflect on the current situation in Brazil, the role that certification can play for EDI and which conditions are required to enact change. In addition, we reflect on our positionalities and working practices as part of this collaboration as feminist researchers from different disciplinary and geographical backgrounds.

We trace colonial logics in the operationalisation of the funding scheme on setting international collaborations valorising the UK system and reinforcing geopolitical production of knowledge hierarchies between the Global North and Global South. Furthermore, reflecting on the Brazilian political, cultural context with a focus on HE we find similar challenges – to the UK – in implementing gender and EDI efforts. However, there are particular nuances in the Brazilian context that exacerbate these obstacles and make the implementation of an EDI certification framework in Brazil particularly challenging. Overcoming these barriers requires a collective effort from government, funding bodies, scientific associations and HE institutions, for the implementation of impactful and sustainable initiatives beyond mere rhetoric. Finally, while we had a positive collaboration, we felt ambivalent towards certain dimensions of the way the partnerships and the EDI internationalisation were operationalised.

We provide insights and practical recommendations that enhance the understanding of the issues surrounding the implementation of EDI efforts internationally such as CAS in the Brazilian context.

Reflecting on the internationalisation of EDI can lead to more tailored context-sensitive frameworks and activities that have the potential to influence societal attitudes and expectations towards gender roles and inclusivity, contributing to a more equitable and just society at large. It also touches upon the dynamics of international partnerships and collaborations across different contexts that can have implications for how such partnerships should be developed and funded beyond a mainstream colonial approach of “mentoring less advanced institutions”.

We reflect and critically discuss the internationalisation of EDI certification in HE and the role of international collaborations towards this process, a topic that has not been often examined within the literature on the internationalisation of HE as a romanticised and positive discourse. From our experience, we explore how such efforts can bring up ambivalence in the way they are operationalised and have the potential to both reinforce and disrupt colonial hierarchies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges faced by rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon and explore how stakeholder engagement strategies, guided by stakeholder theory, can mitigate these challenges. By analyzing the interactions between stakeholders and women entrepreneurs, the study aims to uncover effective solutions that contribute to the sustained success of women entrepreneurs in Lebanon's rural areas.

This study uses participatory action research (PAR) and narrative inquiry. PAR involves women entrepreneurs as active collaborators, fostering participation and enabling marginalized voices to address business challenges. Narrative inquiry delves into their experiences deeply, accessing multiple perspectives and insights.

This study uncovers challenges in resource accessibility, societal norms and market limitations for rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. Stakeholder influence, especially community support and tailored training programs, proves crucial. However, governmental involvement remains limited, relying more on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and expert mentorship. Targeted interventions and policies are essential for inclusive growth and gender equality in entrepreneurship.

This paper offers a unique perspective by focusing on rural women entrepreneurs in Lebanon, exploring their specific challenges within the country's socioeconomic landscape. Its interdisciplinary approach and actionable recommendations for practical strategies, along with a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, provide novel insights into women's entrepreneurship in rural settings.

This study aims to investigate the digital information needs and seeking behaviour of legal practitioners practising at the Lahore High Court in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

This study adopts a quantitative approach based on an e-questionnaire survey to collect data from legal practitioners following a comprehensive census. Among the 9,933 registered legal practitioners, a random sample size of 370 respondents was determined, of whom 302 responded to the survey, resulting in a response rate of 81.6%.

Legal practitioners prefer the Pakistan Law Site and law journals as primary sources of information acquisition, with a distinct inclination towards digital formats over traditional print. These resources are primarily used for court case preparation, significantly enhancing the research capabilities of legal practitioners and ensuring they remain current in their field. However, several challenges were identified, including time constraints, limited access to digital resources and inadequate availability of legal resources in digital format. These challenges emphasize the critical need for enhancing the digital infrastructure of law libraries.

The study calls for law libraries to adopt technological advancements and underscores the necessity of improving digital infrastructure to better serve the evolving information needs of legal practitioners.

This study underscores the preferred information sources and formats of legal practitioners for seeking information, their purpose for using law resources and the impact of digital media on their information-seeking behaviour. In addition, this study reveals the challenges they face in seeking them.

Considering the historical evolution of innovation dynamics, and its paradoxical state, and answering Nelson (2008) and Winter (2014), this paper aims to analyze the dynamics of innovation within the context of the Evolutionary Economic Theory. Specifically, this study looks to unravel the moderating influence of university cooperation on the relationship between innovation expenditure and innovation results. This study aims to provide valuable insights and evidence that can inform strategic decision-making for policymakers and businesses striving to foster innovation-driven economic growth in an ever-evolving global landscape.

The quantitative methodology adopted in this study involved harvesting data from the Latin American Innovation Survey (LAIS) database and cleaning it up using Python to ensure data integrity. Subsequently, SPSS, coupled with the PROCESS macro, was employed to conduct moderation analysis. This methodological approach enabled the examination of the intricate interplay between innovation expenditure, university cooperation and innovation outcomes within a large sample of firms, thereby easing a robust exploration of the hypothesis.

The research highlights the moderating role of university cooperation, showing that collaborative partnerships amplify the impact of innovation spending on innovation results, advancing the understanding of the impact of university-business collaborations. Additionally, the results revealed a positive relationship between innovation expenditure and innovation results, underscoring the significance of R&D investments.

This study highlights the role of university-industry collaborations in enhancing innovation investment outcomes in Latin America. It suggests that managers should proactively engage with universities to access advanced research and foster a culture of innovation. These partnerships can significantly boost a firm's competitive edge and innovation success, marking them as crucial in the rapidly evolving economic environment.

The originality of the paper relies on bridging theoretical concepts from the Evolutionary Economic Theory framework with empirical insights of the moderating role of university cooperation. It addresses a theoretical gap, with a new methodology and offers insights into the complex relationship between universities, businesses and innovation in a constantly changing economic environment, making it clearer how these connections can help boost innovation in practical ways.

Developing economies often lack sufficient state regulation to encourage corporations to engage with environmental sustainability challenges. Environmental NGOs fill this vacuum but this relationship is fraught with challenges, linked to each party’s competing interests. This paper examines how an environmental NGO operating in a developing country manages such challenges.

A longitudinal case study, from 2017–2022, based on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, with the main periods of field work in 2017 and 2020.

We unravel nuanced dynamics of accountability within an NGOs collaborative ecosystem. Our findings reveal a web of interlinked obligations and expectations, strategically adopted to reconcile environmental and CSR logics fostering trustworthy partnerships with firms. Despite aiming for transformative change, the NGO made gradual initiatives, to meet the challenges of fostering systemic change in developing nations. Institutional logics of professionalism and development allowed NGO members avoid mission drift and realign upward accountability relations into lateral ones.

The study provides insight into successful NGO-corporate partnerships and illustrates how accountability is negotiated, upheld, and reconceptualized in such collaborations.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education in the UK focuses on maintaining, enhancing and standardising the quality of higher education. Of significant impact are the development of subject benchmark statements (SBS) by the QAA, which describe the type and content of study along with the academic standards expected of graduates in specific disciplines. Prior to 2022, the QAA did not have a SBS to which higher education policing programmes could be directly aligned.

Over 12-months, a SBS advisory group with representatives from higher education across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, The College of Policing, QAA, Police Federation of England and Wales and policing, worked in partnership to harness their collective professional experience and knowledge to create the first UK SBS for policing. Post publication of the SBS, permission was sought and granted from both the College of Policing and QAA for members of the advisory group to reflect in an article on their experiences of collaborating and working in partnership to achieve the SBS.

There is great importance of creating a shared vision and mutual trust, developed through open facilitated discussions, with representatives championing their cause and developing a collaborative and partnership approach to completing the SBS.

A collaborative and partnership approach is essential in developing and recognising the academic discipline of policing. This necessarily requires the joint development of initiatives, one of which is the coming together of higher education institutions, PSRBs and practitioner groups to collaborate and design QAA benchmark statements.

The SBS advisory group has further driven forward the emergence of policing as a recognised academic discipline to benefit multiple stakeholders.

The SBS for policing is the first across the UK. The authors experiences can be used to assist others in their developments of similar subject specific benchmarking or academic quality standards.

The purpose of this study is to examine dilemmas in a district–university partnership that used network improvement communities (NIC) as a levers for systems change after COVID-19.

We draw on observations and in-depth, semi-structured interviews to understand the benefits and limitations of using network improvement communities embedded within a longstanding district–university partnership to address problems of practice.

Five dilemmas that emerged: (1) the need to continue the pilot roll-out of the NIC while still communicating a vision of the long-term, large-scale vision of NIC work, (2) center collaborative inquiry while still moving at a fast enough pace for participants to see progress, (3) include those most involved in the work while still having efficient decision making processes, (4) respect the knowledge and agency of participants while still supporting rigorous and impactful change and (5) honor the work the district is already engaged in while still extending beyond existing initiatives.

We conclude that the work of leading network improvement communities as part of a district–university partnership is complex. We add to the emerging research on NIC hub leadership by highlighting the dilemmas that must be managed in this work.

The purpose of this research study was to examine school leaders’ critical perspectives about the nature of their partnerships with K-12 schools and two Educator Preparation Programs (EPP).

Data were collected through interviews with K-12 school leaders to obtain partners’ critical perspectives about school–EPP partnerships. The interviews were coded thematically and oriented around the central concept of working to represent the interplay of the participants and their collaborators’ perceptions of the nature and dimensions of school–EPP partnerships.

The analysis resulted in the construction of a mosaic of school leaders’ collective lived experiences using a statewide conceptual framework as a guide. Four themes emerged from our interviews with school partners: (a) the need for dynamic, responsive and synergistic partnerships; (b) the need to monitor and maintain the underlying structure and integrity of the partnership; (c) the culture of interns as colleagues or as visitors; and (d) the need to innovate.

Four themes emerged from our interviews with school partners: (1) the need for dynamic, responsive and synergistic partnerships; (2) the need to monitor and maintain the underlying structure and integrity of partnerships; (3) the culture of interns as colleagues or interns as visitors; and (4) the need to innovate.