Call for paper: Sustainability in School-University Partnerships: Comparative and International Perspectives

Sustainability in School-University Partnerships: Comparative and International Perspectives

This special issue synthesizes and systematizes the experiences and expertise of school-university partnerships (SUPs) in view of their sustainability from various national and regional contexts through a comparative and/or international analytical lens. School-university partnerships are facing critical challenges to their sustainability and longevity, and this special issue highlights how different contexts (e.g., cultural, political, structural, geographic) shape approaches to sustaining healthy, collaborative, and productive relationships between schools and universities.

From a comparative perspective, leaders of school-university partnerships across nations and contexts face uncertain and challenging times, specifically in view of sociopolitical polarizations and curtailed funding structures. The global exchange of ideas about innovative school-university partnerships recognizes and leverages resources of minoritized and underserved schools and school communities in ways that are collaborative and equitable. Strategies for diversifying funding and finding new ways to sustain partnerships are vital to this end.

This special issue asks how international, national, and local SUP experiences speak to the larger construct and mission of school-university partnerships, and how they persist beyond the short life cycle of projects and across varied educational contexts. The comparative approach offers new insights into universal and context-specific factors that influence SUP sustainability, offering scholars and practitioners a more nuanced understanding of how to build partnerships that can withstand systemic challenges and create lasting impact in a variety of communities.

Key areas addressed in this issue: First, voices and experiences from multiple national and international contexts provide a multi-faceted, comparative framework for considering a common phenomenon through different manifestations. Second, the focus on sustainability examines how partnerships evolve, adapt, and endure or fade over time, shifting the focus from the often-studied focus on partnership initiation and implementation. Third, it offers opportunities for identifying patterns across contexts, going beyond individual case studies.

Proposed topics for this special issue could include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Brokering: Investigations of how brokers have been key players in initiating and bringing together the potential leaders of a partnership, and how their expertise can set up partnerships for initial success that leads to sustainability.

2. Sustainability from the start: Explorations into how partnerships can be initiated with sustainability in mind, including, but not limited to, partners’ enabling conditions (e.g., absorptive capacity); governance structures; equity readiness; incentives for partnering; key leaders or change agents with dispositions for partners.

3. Funding: Analysis of how funding affects the sustainability of partnerships, including who is the prime funder (university grants vs district or school-level funding); how the lifecycle of grants influences sustainability; what moves are made by the partners when funding fluctuates?

4. Issues of equity: Investigations into how a focus on equity leads to partnership sustainability, including but not limited to ensuring equity among all involved actors; attending to the agency of individuals and the dynamics of power as related to partnership process and outcomes; building relational and political trust; privileging the expertise and experiences of minoritized youth, families, and communities.

5. Boundary Spanning and Infrastructure: Explorations into how partners learn together through such frameworks as boundary spanning, third spaces, translation, or implementation taking into consideration stakeholder needs, the design of collaborative structures, building strong communications and trusting relationships (formal and informal), and/or the ability of the partners to pivot and be flexible in the face of challenges.

Publication of the Themed Issue

This themed issue will be published in the third quarter of 2026. For full consideration, articles must be submitted to the Guest Editors by March 1, 2026.

Tentative Schedule for Publication

· Submission Dates: September 1, 2025- March 1, 2026

· Authors will be notified of publication decisions and receive feedback through a double-blind peer review process: June 1, 2026

· Final article revisions submitted: July 1, 2026

Submission Guidelines

Articles should be a maximum of 10,000 words in length. This includes all text, the structured abstract, references, tables, figures and appendices. Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format and follow APA 7 guidelines. More details can be found on the SUP website under the author guidelines tab. Submissions must be blinded, including a blinded title page and structured abstract. Each submission will undergo double blind peer review. Target number of accepted papers is 8-10 manuscripts.