Social partnership in education: how to establish sustainable connections between a school and a university?

   Introduction. Partnerships in education provide greater opportunities for all educational stakeholders. Policy documents of international organisations (UNESCO, OECD) emphasize the key role that cooperation between schools and universities plays in responding to global challenges and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. This study is aimed at answering the question: How to establish a sustainable partnership between a school and a university?

   Materials and methods. The objective of this study was to develop an algorithm that will help schools and universities establish sustainable partnerships. To do this, the following research tasks were fulfilled: analyzing the concept of social partnership; describing partnership models between educational institutions; identifying the key characteristics of sustainable partnerships; conducting a comparative study of the logic of purposes of schools and universities; conducting an opinion survey of school and university leaders. The following methods were used: comparative method, case study method, content analysis method, survey method, modeling and project design approach, systematization and conceptualization of scientific ideas.

   Results. The results of the study include the following: an analysis of the concept of social partnership in education from the point of view of Russian and international researchers; a description of possible partnership models between educational institutions; a definition of the key characteristics of sustainable partnerships; a comparative analysis of the logic of purposes of schools and universities by 4 parameters: mission, purpose, function and roles. Based on the opinion survey of school and university leaders we identified the popular directions of cooperation, the benefits that schools and universities offer to each other, and their competency deficits. The main result of this study is the algorithm for building sustainable partnerships in education that includes the guidelines for educational institutions at each stage of partnership development (initiation, realization, reflexion) taking into account the key cooperation components, such as objectives and motivations, possibilities and constraints, and relationships.

   Discussion and conclusions. The algorithm can be used by educational institutions of different levels depending on their needs and context at any partnership stage.

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