We have been collecting data on the collaboration process and the systemic change strategies pursued by the partnerships, and we are now in the beginning stages of analyzing our findings. To help promote dialogue among the American and South African partnerships, I will concentrate on lessons learned about the early stages of collaboration.
Collaboration Begins in Conversation.
Effective collaboration begins with conversations about the purposes of partnership. Building inter-institutional collaboratives capable of promoting systemic educational reform is a very difficult endeavor. At the earliest stages, a number of institutions, including those with no history of talking together, have to engage in fundamental democratic conversation about the needs of the community and the aims of their collective effort. I describe these initial encounters as democratic conversations because the institutions, whatever their size, resources, or prior histories, must engage one another as equals in a mutual attempt to respond to the problems of the community. A critical strategic decision that has to be made at this stage is who must be at the table.