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of partnership not of isolated contexts within school and training
institutions but of each as widely as possible. Continuity over
time
is an
portant feature for once
expectations
begin to change
then possibilities for practice need to follow.
The partnership between the teacher and school group tutor is basic
for at all stages their negotiation is essential and it is within
their relationship that the distinctiveness of the contribution
emerges. It is equally clear that without the possibility for the
establishment
and extension of such a collaboration the idea of
partnership will founder. What is required is less exact specifi-
cation ,
than space to develop new forms of practice
to consolidate
and to evaluate them. Nothing has been said here about the possible
role of the teacher tutor within the training institution and this
is deliberate. Within the Sussex scheme it was found to be the most
difficult aspect to put
into operation which whilst that may reflect
constraints
money may also point
to a distinctiveness
of function that is an essential element of partnership.
Equally
it may reflect institutional pressures within
schools that even the
best intended schemes of partnership can do little to effect.
This
may be even more true
in the present economic and educational climate.
The Sussex experience
points to a relation of initial and in-service
work that may be a logical and desirable outcome rather than an essen-
tial starting point. Broadly based relationships between the school
and the training institution are required in anticipation of future
developments as well
as by the immediate necessities of the planning
and implementation of
initial courses.
Nowhere is this more pertinen
than
in consideration of the relationship of initial teacher educatio