Scotland has a population of around 5.46 million.The country has a mature educational infrastructure which includes: university provision of all initial teacher education as well as Master-level provision for continuing teacher education; local authorities which employ teachers and also provide continuing professional development for teachers; a school inspectorate; an independent regulator – known as the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS); teacher trades unions as well as other professional bodies serving the needs of teachers and head teachers. Education is one of the most important issues over which Scotland, one of the constituent nations of the UK has complete control in its devolved Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh (inter alia Redford 2013). The partnership model of teacher education at the University of Glasgow became an enabling structure for two key Scottish Government policy objectives: professionalizing initial teacher education as recommended in Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson, 2011) and closing the poverty-related attainment gap through the Scottish Attainment Challenge (2015). The partnership model anticipated the need for sites of teacher education to co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship for staff in both universities and schools. The model, ever-changing, has evolved to respond to the need for teachers within the Scottish context who are able to create pedagogical approaches which will support the narrowing of the poverty-related attainment gap. The school-university partnership is funded by the Scottish Government and operated by the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council (the local authority which employs teachers). The project developed into a mature relationship between the university and 10 local authorities. The curriculum for the practicum partnership comprised both classroom experience, intellectual engagement with appropriate literature, peer and staff observations, learning conversations and a holistic assessment of student performance over the full 18 weeks school practicum. The School Experience curriculum honoured the expertise of school teachers and university lecturers as academic knowledge was considered one appropriate knowledge alongside professional knowledge which was also necessary and appropriate (Zeichner, 2010). School teachers were viewed as experts in classroom pedagogy while university lecturers were seen as having access to contemporary research on issues relating to classroom practice. The ambition of both partners was to create a robust and sustainable model of teacher education This paper will outline how the partnership came about; its structure and roles; its funding; its evaluation; and its evolution.

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