This report represents the results of an interpretive case study conducted from December 2005 to December 2006. Conceptualization of the initial idea, the project purpose, target audiences, and design features evolved over months and included many expert opinions. This narrative report is intended to give readers a deeper understanding of how the National Literacy Secretariat Business and Labour Partnership Program has fostered partnership development since 1988.
Partnership is becoming an ever more present idea as an approach to solving social, cultural and economic issues. It seems that the public and private sectors, business and medicine, education and social services are all contributing to the dialogue about the importance of partnership. However, the actual fostering of partnerships is difficult, especially as it relates to literacy. This topic is seldom discussed among people in government, the funding agencies who encourage partnership development, and the wider literacy community.
There is a tendency to use this term loosely, or to avoid defining it. Partnership represents a significant step beyond cooperation and collaboration but many lack a clear understanding of the partnership development process and its impacts on the community in its broadest sense. Moving away from a more legal or economic notion of partnership, the following quote provided a useful frame of reference for the research project. Poole (1995) defined partnership as:
an association between two or more persons, groups, or organizations who join together to achieve a common goal that neither one alone can accomplish. This association is characterized by joint membership rights, by democratic participation and by shared responsibility. Each member agrees to contribute to the partnership with the understanding that the possession or enjoyment of the benefits will be shared by all. Partners work hard to strengthen each other and to endure conflict and change, because they recognize that their shared goal extends beyond the reach of any one member. (p.2)