Shared Decision-Making in Times of Change: Facing Challenges Through Collaborative Inquiry in a PDS Partnership

Collaborative Professional Development Schools rely on shared decision-making structures. These structures matter when partnerships are thriving and they matter when partnerships face difficult decisions. Their PDS recently addressed a challenge that prompted them to rethink their process for pairing teacher candidates with mentor teachers. Here, Rutten outline the ways they used collaborative inquiry to support shared decision-making both to tackle new practical challenge and to respond to their PDS's mission in fresh ways. The mission of their PDS is to create and maintain a community of teacher candidates, inservice teachers, and teacher educators who strive to engage all partners, including K-4 students, in continuous learning, reflection, and innovation through respectful, collaborative inquiry. A major aspect of this mission is preparing teacher candidates for the teaching profession.