A classroom teacher’s and teacher educator’s perspective of the barriers to their involvement in a school-university partnership

This chapter identifies the first-hand challenges of a classroom teacher’s and a teacher educator’s initial involvement in a regional Australian school-university partnership (SUP). After providing an overview of the literature regarding difficulties sustaining and initiating SUPs, the authors recognise the lack of research about initial challenges as opposed to obstacles related to sustaining the partnership. Following the literature overview, and presented as two autoethnographies, the authors provide their own perspective of the initial challenges experienced and explain what they have learnt from establishing an effective partnership. Practical ways of overcoming challenges are then suggested in light of the literature and the authors’ experiences. While this chapter is grounded in an Australian context, it is intended that the recognition of challenges and ways in which these were overcome can initiate a greater number of working and sustainable SUPs universally.