Preconference II: Deepening SLCE partnerships through critical reflection: Learning from research and practice

Plan to arrive by 7:30 am so you can check-in and grab breakfast.The preconference sessions will begin at 8:00 am.

Engaging in partnerships that are increasingly strong, flourishing, democratic … let’s just say deep. Surely this appeals to all partners in SLCE. But what does “deep” look like? How can partnerships deepen, especially through intentional collaborative actions of partners? How do we get on the same page as partners about whether and in what ways we intend our partnerships to be transformational? How do we know whether partnerships are deepening and what processes contribute toward that deepening? What questions might we pursue related to deepening in order to continue building the field’s understanding of partnership processes? In this pre-conference workshop, an international team of facilitators will share and engage participants with an expansive (and deep!) body of work connected to TRES (pronounced “trees”), the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale and the new research-grounded Reflection Framework that it can be part of.

As a participant, you will explore the conceptual underpinnings of TRES and apply the scale and excerpts from the Reflection Framework to your own contexts for research and practice. You will be invited to share your own efforts to deepen and inquire into partnerships. You will learn about an inter-institutional pilot study that examined questions about the utility and impact of the TRES Reflection Framework – teaser: commitment to and clarity around partnerships increased and planned practices around partnership gatherings, communication, and inclusion were enhanced – and a second (international) project in which practitioner-scholars used TRES to build program capacity, assessed their relationships, and developed an additional related measurement and accountability tool around their spheres of influences specifically as administrators.

You will work with others in the session to co-generate a set of research questions and practice possibilities, leaving the session with the TRES scale and Reflection Framework (which you can use in your context), concrete ideas for future inquiry, and an invitation to collaborate with the TRES team in ongoing research. Please join us for a highly interactive, fun, and educational morning as we play together with TRES!