Mid Sweden University

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value created for educational institutions when entering into partnerships with other organizations. This study is conducted through the lens of Quality Management and marks the start of a larger research project focusing on the value created from partnerships in education developed to prepare students as citizens in a global society.

This paper marks the start of a larger research project focusing on the value created for all stakeholders in sustainable partnerships in primary and secondary education. These stakeholders are defined as the primary or secondary school, the partnership organization, the teachers, the students, and the parents of the students. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value created by organizations who enter into these educational partnerships with schools. The primary focus of the partnerships in this study is on preparing students for citizenry in a sustainable global society. This study consists of qualitative appreciative inquiry interviews conducted with leaders of organizations who intentionally enter into partnerships with primary and secondary schools focusing on developing students as global citizens who will be prepared to create a sustainable global society. This research will provide insights regarding: 1) the type of value created for each stakeholder from the perspective of the organizational leaders through the establishment of the partnership; and 2) who or what receives the value created by the partnership from the perspective of the organizational leaders. Partnerships in education with a global focus provide a platform for primary and secondary students to practice creative problem solving skills, team building through collaboration, and to develop real-world global connections through true- to-life, meaningful experiences in their community, their state, their country, and internationally. Organizations with a global educational focus provide an attractive quality for primary and secondary schools in that these schools are searching for ways to meet parental and societal demand of a cutting- edge education. This study follows the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) Quality Education, Target 4.7, which calls for ensuring “all learners acquire the knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.” This research also supports the UN SDG Partnerships for the Goals, Target 17.16, which calls for enhancing “the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries (United Nations, 2022).” 

The purpose of this paper is to present results from a literature review on Quality Management systems and the role of partnership to support sustainable innovative practice. Research shows that partnerships create value for the organizations and are an important component to developing responsive and sustainable systems. In education, partnerships between schools and business and international organizations is showing promise to enhance the quality of education and prepare youth for a sustainable global community as part of the UN sustainable development goals. The primary goal for schools seeking to enter into a partnership with an international organization is to foster the students’ growth as global citizens with an international mind set, and to increase and sustain their customer base. The primary goal for international organizations to enter partnerships with schools is to grow as an organization through their outreach into school communities and to foster students’ growth as global citizens. This research is important in that it will provide insight into the Quality Management practices taken by innovative sustainable partnerships which follow the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.7, providing a quality education that promotes “a culture of peace and non‐violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.” There is a growing need among private schools to create value for their customers by incorporating innovative environmental and sustainability educational opportunities for the students, as global awareness is increasingly growing throughout the customer base. Next steps, following this conference, will include a study which focuses on a private school in the United States that regularly develops and sustains innovative global partnerships. These partnerships are recognized as complex adaptive systems that contain a dynamic network of complex, interconnected pathways of human interaction that evolve and change based on episodes of disequilibrium. The sustainable relationship between the organization and the school depend and develop upon a basic formative structure. As there is a demand for private schools to develop innovative global relationships with organizations, there is also a demand by these schools for a vetted structure that can be implemented in order to develop and sustain partnerships. This topic will be the focus of the research following this literature review.

Research was conducted to determine the origin of the sandstone used to make palettes found at the Moundville site in west-central Alabama. Sandstone samples were taken from two localities: one near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which contains an abundance of Upper Pottsville Formation sandstone; and one near Guin, Alabama, which contains an abundance of Lower Pottsville Formation sandstone. The sandstone samples were ccompared petrographically to artifact samples from Moundville. In terms of mineralology, texture, and color, the Moundville palettes more closely resemble the Upper Pottsville Formation sandstone from Tuscaloosa than the Lower Pottsville Formation sandstone from Guin. This finding supports the conclusion that sandstone palettes were produced locally in the Moundville region.