Cultivating quality professional learning partnerships between schools, universities and other stakeholders: take-aways from two Tasmanian case studies

This paper shares insights from an initial evaluation of collaborative Arts teacher professional learning initiatives recently implemented in Tasmania. The teacher professional learning programs involved multi-stakeholder investment from tertiary institution, teacher professional association, Arts industry and a Tasmanian Department of Education teacher professional learning institute. The paper unpacks how a framework for professional learning partnerships was adapted for a Tasmanian art teacher professional learning context to successfully permeate stakeholder boundaries and draw together external expertise to co-evolve ‘many to many’ reciprocal partnerships for successful art teacher professional learning.

Drawing together a rich tapestry of survey and interview data, this presentation renders qualitative and quantitative outcomes to highlight how professional learning initiatives in Tasmania are working support art teachers to develop confidence in their enactment of The Australian Curriculum – The Arts. Given Tasmania did not meet its intended 2017 implementation target for teacher adoption of The Australian Curriculum – The Arts, collaborative professional learning initiatives such as these that maximise the efficiency of traditionally siloed support mechanisms to collaborate reciprocally, seamlessly and successfully are imperative. This presentation will argue the need for professional learning stakeholders to better understand and navigate uncertainties inherent to cultivating successful ‘many to many’ professional learning partnerships. In doing so, transferable ‘take-aways’ for other teaching contexts are drawn from these Tasmanian art teacher professional learning examples to highlight how such collaborative teacher professional learning initiatives might be fostered elsewhere in other contexts.

This paper entwines findings from two HREC Research Projects - H0016439: Cultivating quality professional learning partnerships between schools, universities and other stakeholders; and H0016197: Classroom collaborations - Curriculum art-ventures of primary students and teachers.