Although partnership working has been a feature of educational practice for some time, some recent reforms and developments have refocused educators' attention on this phenomenon. Whilst there are many versions and interpretations of partnerships in education, the most common understanding of partnerships between school and university is as the arrangement to facilitate, support and assess student teachers in practical teaching experience. The aim of this paper is to critically examine the concept of partnership between school and university. We offer a critique of partnership as it is presented in literature at a macro and meso level, and we report on a collaborative enquiry between school and university staff in a (micro-level) secondary school setting. The project was structured around a series of workshops in the school setting to support and facilitate Learning Rounds. Using data from this project including field notes and semi-structured interviews, we will give voice to the often unheard testimony of the teacher in their lived experiences of partnership, and make a contribution to the ongoing debate around partnerships by highlighting some of the difficulties and tensions arising from partnership in practice.

At the time of writing, primary English education is, once again, at a crossroads. Within the context of a continuing focus on underachievement in writing for key groups of learners and a large body of research, which suggests that classroom talk is a powerful means of improving children's success in all areas of the curriculum including writing, this article considers two current approaches to talk in the primary curriculum – Talk for Writing and Towards Dialogic Teaching. In doing so, it critically analyses these texts through the theoretical lens of education as social reproduction with a view to identifying their ideological assumptions about the purpose of talk in the curriculum. Discussion considers how such assumptions may influence classroom practice and contribute to the teachers’ understanding of the role of oracy within the primary classroom. The article concludes that whilst both texts might suggest a socially reproductive approach to education, both have the potential to empower the learner through the skilful implementation of oracy as the foundation of teaching and learning.

This study offers an insight into the experiences of three newly qualified English primary teachers and their pupils as they sought to develop dialogic teaching in lessons. It draws upon a range of literature from the field of classroom talk, with a particular focus on the work of Robin Alexander to underpin teacher/researcher professional discussion and analysis of periodic video recordings of talk in these classrooms. Supplemented by teacher interviews, the research examines the extent to which a dialogic approach to teacher professional development might facilitate teacher self-evaluation as a means of developing a more dialogic classroom. In doing so, it seeks to exemplify key talk moves (dialogic bids) that these teachers used to open up dialogic spaces in lessons. The research concludes that raising teacher awareness of such talk moves through professional discussion and reflection upon teaching can provide teachers with a metacognitive resource for talking about and furthering dialogic teaching practices.

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