Faculty-in-Residence: A Model to Enhance Rural Partnerships

To enhance partnerships in two rural schools, our college of education initiated a faculty-in-residence program. A group of faculty members visited two other colleges of education with established faculty-in-residence programs to learn from others and to discern a direction for our own work. Two teacher educators, each at a different partner school, expanded roles to become faculty-in-residence. These teacher educators and the leader of the faculty-in-residence initiative engaged in a self-study to focus on the implementation of this program and how the faculty-in-residence experienced and interpreted this effort. Findings relate to the factors of responsiveness, relationships, and impact. The rural locus of these partnerships is fundamental to all aspects of the faculty-in-residence initiative, underlining the importance of context.