Description
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the thoughts and feelings of 13 people who entered into a public-private partnership to create a learning experience outside of the traditional classroom for students in the Innovation Elementary School District in partnership with the City of Innovation, the Innovation Library, and the Fortune 500 Company, Quirk. Specifically, the study sought to examine how participants responded to the public-private partnership phenomenon. The main data was derived from structured interviews of 13 actors who represented the unique entities. In this study, it was learned that the actors who experienced the partnership phenomenon identified 5 themes that dominated their thoughts during the partnership phenomenon. These themes included the interviewee's understanding of a common vision, objective, and goals, the identification of how trust played a major role in accomplishing the public-private partnership, each actor's curiosity as to the possibilities that will result from the public-private partnership, a strong desire to support what possibilities for innovation existed and a wondering about what each innovation will look like, the presence of a partnership champion and how that person had a positive impact on each actor's excitement for the Innovation Station partnership, and finally, the theme of the educational and business community working together to innovate for student learning was extrapolated. Implications from this study suggest that educational entities, businesses, and policy makers should study successful public-private partnerships to understand the antecedents to success. Additionally, partnerships should be embraced throughout the education and business community.
