Enacting an Emergent Strategy: Building Resilient Community Partnerships Through Symbiotic Adaptation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-15-2024

Department

Center for Science and Math Education

School

Center for Science and Math Education

Abstract

The partnership explored in this article offers a high-level view of one university-based research + practice partnership (RPP) with a local informal science institution (ISI) that suggests implications for advancing science education in various contexts. Touching K12 schools, undergraduate coursework, K12 teacher preparation, undergraduate career exploration opportunities, graduate-level research opportunities, public, and collaboration with content-area faculty members, the NExUS-Mississippi RPP offers an example of institutional agility necessary to advance equitable outcomes in science education across a variety of contexts. By honoring the inherent entanglement of communities and educational institutions, enacting an emergent strategy offers new avenues for characterizing partnership capacity-building efforts, organizational resilience, and sustainable design. Specifically, three thematic values consistently surface in the daily work of creating the conditions necessary for partnership persistence: (a) formalizing systems for stability, (b) building trust through transparent and frequent communication, and (c) creating mechanisms of implementation that can be replicated at other universities regardless of financial support.

Publication Title

Connected Science Learning

Share

COinS