‘It’s like Central Park’: conceptualising teacher residencies as a democratic hub

In this conceptual paper, we offer a framework to examine how residency programmes can critically reflect upon their existence and presence as a democratic hub. As a model of teacher preparation that blends theory and university coursework with practice, residency programmes are designed to prepare and diversify the teacher workforce for a context-specific setting that calls upon universities to partner closely with local districts. We see the need for a reflective conceptualisation of residencies to offer a tool for considering how and why residencies are created. In conceptualising teacher residency programmes as democratic hubs rather than institutional programmes, we draw on the metaphor of Central Park in New York City to discuss the permeability of boundaries and accessibility to all. We centre our framework on three pillars: a) decentralising knowledge; b) historicising knowledge; and c) co-creating knowledge. This study has implications for addressing a central and longstanding problem in teacher education: the disconnect between academic coursework and fieldwork or the lack of collaboration between schools and universities often referred to as the theory-practice divide. We offer this tool to conceptualise teachers' residencies so that teacher education can be designed to matter in practice, not only in institutions but for the public good.