Leveraging School-University Partnerships to Respond to Problems of Practice in Teacher Education

CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal: School-University Partnerships

Publisher: Emerald Publishing

Proposal Submission Deadline: 15 April 2026

Full Paper Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

Introduction

School-university partnerships have significant potential to serve as fertile ground for responding to persistent problems of practice in teacher education. This Special Issue aims to spotlight research and scholarship that demonstrates how these partnerships are addressing key challenges, including:

Preparing both teacher candidates and clinical teachers (mentor teachers) to enact evidence-based and research-based pedagogies
Enacting intentionally-designed clinical practice approaches to maximize teacher candidates' development
Establishing mutually-beneficial partnerships that support teacher education as well as school partners hosting teacher candidates
Recruiting and developing teachers through both traditional teacher education pathways and alternative licensure pathways such as residency programs
Retaining teachers in the profession
Providing pathways for teachers to develop skills and earn credentials in leadership roles such as coaching or administration

This Special Issue may also include partnerships between universities, schools, and other community groups.

Aim of the Special Issue

The aim of this Special Issue is to showcase how school-university partnerships are responding to problems of practice in their own context — offering insights, evidence, and frameworks that can inform teacher education policy and practice more broadly.

Types of Contributions Welcome

The following types of articles will be considered:

📄 Conceptual or theoretical papers related to partnership work
📊 Empirical papers with original data
🔍 Syntheses of evidence — systematic reviews or scoping reviews
📋 Descriptive cases or vignettes

List of Topic Areas

Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:

School-university partnership models and their effectiveness in teacher education
Clinical practice design and teacher candidate development
Mentor teacher preparation and professional development
Evidence-based and research-based pedagogy in clinical settings
Alternative licensure pathways — residency programs and non-traditional routes
Teacher recruitment, retention, and career development strategies
Leadership development pathways — coaching and administration credentials
Community-university-school partnership models
Mutually-beneficial partnership design and sustainability
Equity, inclusion, and diversity in teacher preparation through partnerships
Theoretical and conceptual frameworks for school-university collaboration
Systematic and scoping reviews of school-university partnership literature

Guest Editors

Prof. Drew Polly University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA 📧 drew.polly@charlotte.edu

Prof. Madelyn Colonnese 📧 (contact via journal submission platform)

Prof. Miranda Fitzgerald 📧 (contact via journal submission platform)

Targeted Timeline

📝 Proposal Submission Deadline: 15 April 2026 (2-page overview to be submitted to Drew Polly at drew.polly@charlotte.edu)

📄 Full Paper Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026

🔍 Initial Review & Feedback: 15 December 2026

✏️ Resubmission of Revised Drafts: 20 February 2027

✅ Final Acceptance: March 2027

Submission Guidelines

Articles should be a maximum of 10,000 words — including all text, the structured abstract, references, tables, figures, and appendices
Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format
All submissions must follow APA 7 guidelines
Submissions must be fully blinded — including a blinded title page and structured abstract
Each submission will undergo double-blind peer review

First Step — Submit a Proposal: Authors are requested to first submit a 2-page overview/proposal to Guest Editor Drew Polly at drew.polly@charlotte.edu by 15 April 2026.

For full author guidelines and submission details, visit the official School-University Partnerships journal page on the Emerald Publishing website under the Author Guidelines tab.

⚠️ Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review for this journal.

About the Journal

School-University Partnerships (SUP), published by Emerald Publishing, is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing research and practice at the intersection of schools and universities in teacher preparation and professional development. It provides a platform for scholars and practitioners to share evidence, frameworks, and innovations that strengthen educator preparation and school-university collaboration worldwide.

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