Independent state school partnerships (ISSPs): an exploration of partnership enactment

1997年，工党政府要求独立学校与当地公立学校共享设施和教师（DFEE，1997年）。第一个“独立州立学校伙伴关系”（ISSP）于次年由中央资助，到2017年，独立学校理事会报告称，88%的学校与维持部门的学校建立了某种形式的伙伴关系（ISC，2017 ii）。虽然ISSP已经存在了二十多年，但已发表的报告主要是进度报告或评估（Sharp et al，2001; Ofsted，2005; Armstrong，2015）。在另一项分析探索中，Lucas et al（2017）在2017年进行了“对当前[ISSP]活动的范围和存在任何影响证据的快速审查”（p4），这表明伙伴关系可以为学生，教师和学校带来重大利益;例如“学术学习”的机会，分享“最佳实践”和使用设施（p16）。本研究探讨了这些伙伴关系;他们是什么;他们是如何理解的不同的参与者;权力关系如何塑造他们;什么是他们声称和什么成本和收益，有形和无形的，是在制定他们在不同类型的学校。它调查了ISSP的性质及其在实践中的颁布，考虑到它们对国家和独立学校领导人，教师，学生和他们的学校的影响。它探讨了在ISSP中协作工作和伙伴关系实际上是“完成”的方式，并试图揭示“混乱，混乱，有争议，创造性和平凡的社会互动”。(and)谈判和联盟建设“（Ball，et al. 2012：2），这构成了学校制定政策的过程。通过社会交换理论（Homans，1958; Emerson，1976）的理论透镜，该研究考虑了伙伴关系的“价值”--感知收益减去成本的平衡，并试图建立一个更深层次的整体图景。它还使用政策制定理论（Ball et al，2012：3），即“将政策理念抽象为情境化实践”，以探讨这些伙伴关系中的权力分配和不同形式的教师投资。本研究通过访谈学校领导以及积极参与伙伴关系活动的人，实证调查教师如何理解伙伴关系，并对所有参与伙伴关系的学校的利益和成本提出主张，以促进正在进行的关于不同部门的学校如何最有效地合作的全国性辩论。考虑到人们对私立学校慈善地位的经常性担忧，各国政府希望私立学校能做更多的工作，与国家维持的部门建立伙伴关系（DfE，2016; ISC，2016 ii）。这些ISSP是政策的先锋，质疑它们的意义、作用和有效性是及时和重要的。

In 1997 the Labour government charged independent schools with sharing their facilities and their teachers with local state maintained schools (DFEE, 1997). The first 'independent state school partnerships' (ISSPs) were centrally funded the following year, and by 2017 the Independent Schools Council reported that 88% of its schools were involved in some form of partnership with schools in the maintained sector (ISC, 2017ii). Although ISSPs have existed for over twenty years, published accounts are mainly progress reports or evaluations (Sharp et al, 2001; Ofsted, 2005; Armstrong, 2015). In one more analytical exploration, Lucas et al (2017), conducted a 'rapid review of the extent of current [ISSP] activity and the existence of any evidence of impact' (p4) in 2017, which revealed that partnerships can bring significant benefits for pupils, teachers and schools; such as opportunities for 'academic learning', sharing 'best practice' and access to facilities (p16). This study explores these partnerships; what they are; how they are understood by the different participants; how power relations shape them; what is claimed for them and what costs and gains, both tangible and intangible, are involved in enacting them across different types of schools. It investigates the nature of ISSPs and their enactment in practice, considering their impact on state and independent school leaders, teachers, pupils and their schools. It explores the ways in which collaborative work and partnership is actually 'done' in ISSPs and seeks to uncover the 'jumbled, messy, contested, creative and mundane social interactions... (and) negotiations and coalition building' (Ball, et al. 2012: 2) that make up the process of doing policy in schools. Through the theoretical lens of social exchange theory (Homans, 1958; Emerson, 1976), the study considers the 'worth' of partnerships - the balance of the perceived benefits less their costs, and seeks to build a deeper holistic picture of their impact. It also uses policy enactment theory (Ball et al, 2012: 3), that is, 'the abstractions of policy ideas into contextualized practices' to explore power distribution and different forms of teacher investment in these partnerships. Through interviewing school leaders, as well as those actively involved in partnership activities, this research investigates empirically how teachers understand partnership, claims about the benefits and costs of partnership to all schools involved, to contribute to the ongoing national debate about how schools in different sectors can work together most effectively.With increasing government interest in, and commitment to, cross-sector collaboration, and given the regular concerns about their charitable status, governments have looked to independent schools to do more to broker partnerships with the state maintained sector (DfE, 2016; ISC, 2016ii). These ISSPs are in the vanguard of policy and it is both timely and important to question their significance, their role and their effectiveness.