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The purpose of this paper is to identify the determining factors in the performance of integrated vocational education schools, in addition to management characteristics and specificities.

By means of a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, a case study was conducted in two schools located in the cities of Cotia and São Roque.

The following factors were identified: engagement and commitment of teachers; motivation and focus of teachers and students; team of professionals; commitment and focus of students; family involvement; leadership and climate and selection of students. The following characteristics were observed: participative leadership associated with the use of management tools; pedagogical leadership in partnership with the school community; monitoring of student performance; performance assessment and training of teachers related to career plan; selection of students and actions along the community.

The results reflect the vision of the schools' managers and teachers and not that of the managing institution. There is no intention whatsoever to obtain generalization to other ETECs but rather inferences that could shed light on future studies.

This research ratifies what has already been proven in the literature, showing that there are no isolated factors that interfere with performance, but an interrelationship among them, given the characteristics and peculiarities of each school.

This study is expected to contribute to guiding school managers and teachers in the search for quality education, whether vocational or regular basic education.

This paper is concerned with some aspects of management education and intends to discuss the relationships among universities, teaching techniques, management educators, and information and communication technologies. Adopting an adequate perspective of the relationship between universities and enterprises for improving and updating management higher education, it defends that management can be taught in a better way if universities are able to explore its teachers' skills and establish very frequent partnerships with enterprises to create an environment where management activities may be better understood. The aim is to revise different issues, to emphasise the value of practical approaches of management education, the importance of pedagogy based on solving problems and the decision‐making process. An interpretative model for management education supported by the integration of management teaching techniques is presented. The model is divided into three areas: the area of theoretical resources, the area related to educator's personal experience, and a set of practical aspects where partnerships are included. Further empirical work will be required to appreciate university's committees' opinions, managerial implications, and to evaluate their statistical meaning.

This chapter draws on data from two studies, one in Canada and another in the United States, focused on the experiences of pedagogical partnership as described by students traditionally underrepresented and underserved in higher education. These students argue that such collaborations with faculty hold promise for creating more inclusive and responsive practices. Using the concept of epistemic justice, the authors explore how partnerships can facilitate epistemological forms of equity and inclusion by (1) creating more equitable conceptions of knowing and knowledge that open possibilities for (2) fostering students’ confidence in their knowledge and willingness to share it with others. The authors argue that partnerships – in their epistemic, relational, and affective impacts – are one powerful way to recognize underrepresented and underserved students as “holders and creators of knowledge” (Delgado-Bernal, 2002, p. 106) and bring about greater epistemic justice in higher education.

This case study investigated how a collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership supported pre-service teachers’ approach to integrating content and pedagogy in coursework and field-based experiences at a large, public university. The collaboration involved articulating shared goals and objectives, planning and teaching co-requisite courses, and sharing a vision of shaping future social studies teachers. The research questions that framed this study were: What elements contributed to a successful collaborative, interdisciplinary partnership? How did faculty involved in the collaboration conceptualize supporting pre-service teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)? The voices of the faculty members involved in this collaboration are highlighted to illustrate how they conceptualized meeting the needs of pre-service social studies teachers. Findings included identifying the constraints and benefits of partnerships as well as contributing factors to a successful interdisciplinary partnership. Identifying the evolving definition and role of PCK in the training of future social studies teachers is also addressed.

This paper aims to present an overview of the design and implementation of a curriculum review undertaken at Plymouth University, UK, to gauge the incidence and status of sustainability in degree programmes across the curriculum. The paper outlines the methodological approach taken, reviews findings and summarises the effects and limitations of the exercise.

Rather than creating a criteria-based auditing tool, which might have been interpreted by academics as top-down evaluation of practice, emphasis was placed on self-evaluation of how the degree programmes were implementing sustainability in a number of broad areas, such as curriculum content, pedagogical approaches and student engagement. A review tool was created and distributed to all undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in the four campus-based faculties in the university. In particular, the review was designed to contribute the institutional annual submissions to the Learning in Future Environments index.

The paper discusses findings in some key areas relating to curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, partnerships and student engagement. Some of the obstacles and limitations identified by programme leaders in implementing education for sustainable development are discussed and areas of future consideration are included.

The review contributes to the limited national and international examples available of institution-wide curriculum reviews in the arena of education for sustainable development. The discussion of the problems, benefits and implications will be of value to other higher education institutions considering undertaking their own curriculum review.

The study explores the relational encounters of five higher education tutors and programme leaders, working in collaboration across contrasting institutions: one, a modern, civic university in the Global North, and the other, a parastatal institution in the Global South. The purpose of the study is to deepen the understanding of evolving collegiality within a transnational partnership, stimulated by the COVID-19 pandemic related shift to online teaching and learning.

The inquiry is informed conceptually by the concept of narrative encounter as a site of learning, with inductive, meta-analysis undertaken across our individual reflective narratives.

The narratives reveal three emergent themes: shared purpose, shared responsibility – through focus, routinised dialogue and concreteness; collective and individual risk-taking – through negotiated decision-making; and trust in self and in peers – through reciprocity, caring, duality and building on stable practices.

The data from which this paper is developed and its related central thesis of collegial capital are limited and partial. However, when agility within higher education partnerships is at a premium, this paper is a useful touchstone for further reflection.

The paper seeks to further the concept of collegiality and collegial capital, a dialogical affordance which enabled the partnership to build on previous collaborative successes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a commissioned research study that analyzed a schooling initiative with the ambitious goal of transforming learning environments across the district by advancing innovative, inquiry-driven pedagogical practices combined with 1:1 iPad distribution. The paper explores impacts of the initiative on pedagogical innovation, twenty-first century learning, and related impacts on professional learning, collaboration, and culture change in the pilot schools analyzed in the study.

A multi-dimensional case study approach was used to analyze how the initiative was implemented, and to what extent teaching, learning, and professional cultures were transformed, based on action plan inputs and “change drivers”. Research methods included structured, open-ended interviews conducted with randomly selected teachers and key informants in leadership roles, focus groups held with students, as well as analysis of policy documents, student work samples, and other data sources.

The authors found evidence of a synergistic relationship between innovations in inquiry-driven pedagogy and professional learning cultures, with evidence of increased collaboration, deepened engagement and persistence, and a climate of collegiality and risk-taking at both classroom and organizational levels. Based on initiative inputs, the authors found that innovations in collaborative technology/pedagogy practices in classrooms paralleled similar innovations and transformations in professional learning cultures and capacity-building networks.

This initiative analyzed in this paper provides a case study in large-scale system change, offering a compelling model for transformative policies and initiatives where interwoven innovations in pedagogy and technology mobilization are supported by multiple drivers for formal and informal professional learning/development and networked collaboration. Challenges and recommendations are highlighted in the concluding discussion.

The transformative initiative analyzed in this paper provides a very timely case-model for innovations in twenty-first century learning and, specifically, for enacting and sustaining large-scale system change where inquiry-driven learning and technology tools are being mobilized to support “deep learning”, “new learning partnerships”, and multilevel transformations in professional learning (Fullan and Donnelly, 2013). This research advances scholarly work in the areas of twenty-first century learning, identifying relationships between technology/pedagogy innovation and professional capital building (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012).

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the degree to which current union learning strategy and practice in the UK can become a catalyst for greater activism and participation by their members in the workplace and beyond. To this end, the paper seeks to draw on the rich heritage of pedagogic theory and practice in adult education writing to bring a fresh perspective to a key aspect of industrial relations.

Through a meta-analysis of the current literature on the role of union learning representatives, learning centres and the context of that learning, the paper seeks to enhance understanding of how such initiatives in addition to upskilling workers lead to members' greater enlightenment with respect to the asymmetric power relations within the workplace and society. Using a conceptual model devised by the author from Freirean theory, this potentially increased awareness of their position in the organisation and society leading to greater levels of subsequent activism and participation by these learners is then critically assessed.

Utilising the radical perspective of Paulo Freire, the article critically analyses the key elements of current union learning strategies in the UK. The paper concludes that union pedagogy strategy not just often raises members' awareness, as Freire would advocate, of their “subordinate” position in society, but potentially also genuinely equips them with the skills, knowledge and understanding to challenge that position through subsequent union activism and, therefore, greater participation in decision-making in the workplace. Union-facilitated learning, it is argued, can also develop the skills and knowledge necessary to increase members' job security.

To the author's knowledge, this is the first time that a Freirean analysis has been applied to this key element of contemporary trade union strategy and practice. In particular, the study seeks to also go beyond most studies of union pedagogic approaches and focus on the learner's journey and how this may imbue a propensity to become more active in the union and, therefore, the workplace.

An important element of more closely linking science – as a process as well as its outcomes – to society is to create interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship, teaching, and learning. Such interdisciplinary work directly improves the way that ideas and skills are taught in the classroom as well as encourages more creative scholarship, more collaborative research projects, and more effective applications of research findings. Creation of consistent and on-going interdisciplinary contact, cooperation, and collaboration between faculty members from the social sciences, humanities, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields can be encouraged with the development of pedagogical partnerships through engagement with Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs). In this chapter, we first describe FLCs and then discuss how they can encourage interdisciplinary intellectual and scholarly community development. We provide examples to illustrate the role that personal and intellectual community building plays in linking the different disciplinary approaches. Finally, we highlight the potential impact that interdisciplinary collaborations can have on creating permanent links between science and society.

The impact of political change in England between 2010 and 2016, has been particularly evident in the way the neoliberal agenda has shaped legislation for Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This chapter will explore the way in which the teaching profession in England has seen tensions mounting between those who see teaching as merely a technical “craft,” something that requires a scant “training” program, and those who frame the education of teachers as a more holistic activity; one that should take account of the pedagogies of adult learning, being a journey of critical reflection and lifelong learning. Drawing on evidence from recently published research studies and a small scale research project with members of Association for Partnership in Teacher Education in England, six dimensions of the current school–university partnership culture are identified. How those involved in ITE are affected by these elements is then critiqued. The findings show how ITE providers now find themselves juggling involvement in a variety of routes into teaching – like the roman rider straddling various horses. Their ability to balance the “disturbances” that arise from the rapidly changing central government policies in England, potentially challenges the integrity of the teaching profession.