5 Summary of Unit 4

Partnership is considered within the Sustainable Development Goals set out by UNESCO as key to reaching all seventeen of the SDGs. The skills, understanding and learning that can be achieved through partnership locally and globally are regarded as fundamental to achieving a sustainable way for all to live in this world. Collaboration as a competency is essential in forming effective partnerships but partnership also requires commitment that is longer term than many of the ways collaborative skills are used.

When used as a pedagogy, partnership can move learners understanding from an individualistic view to a more compassionate and empathetic collective view as part of communities and wider society and can help learners understand their role and responsibility for the world around us, both human and non-human.

Effective communication is essential in creating effective partnerships. Creating learning spaces where critical dialogue can be learned and used can create brave spaces that can allow learners to both learn about issues in their immediate environment and globally, and to deliberate and learn about what must be done in terms of putting the learning into action. These need to be supported spaces to recognise the courage needed to deal with tensions and discomfort in challenging norms and assumptions, and recognising vulnerabilities due to power imbalances. Where learners recognise and address imbalances within a partnership this allows the partnership to engender more skills to be learned that will allow learners to engage in sustainable reasoning and action.

Finally, learners can only understand and learn all the skills that are needed to be an effective partner while acting in a partnership. To develop collaborative capacities, learners need to consider their ways of being, knowing and acting and to become comfortable with discomfort as that will allow them to see transformation through learning.

Unit 4 cards

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