Partnership and Institutions

The chapter discusses the problems educational institutions face, especially in terms of lies and secrets which threaten any attempt at partnership in any institution. That will lead to advocacy of partnership between schools and parents as an ideal to be pursued, difficult to achieve, and constantly thwarted by human frailties embedded in institutional practice. Explicit and careful determination of the four levels at which the partnership is being constructed is fundamental. Schools would thus need to develop a partnership with parents with these three specific rules which establish moral expectations on both sides. Three rules of partnership are clarification, trajectory, and ownership rule. There are some clear basic rules for any partnership between institutions, and/or between institutions and individuals, e.g. a school and a PTA, or a school and a family, or of course between a teacher and a parent. The challenge is how to shape the organizational form to institutional purpose and individual integrity.