ABSTRACT
This chapter explores university–community partnerships as a means of expanding professionalism in higher arts education. Adopting a relational approach to education, through partnership spaces, allows universities to plan and teach for uncertain times and “supercomplexity”. University–community partnerships often act as a key feature of the overall societal and educational missions of universities. Applying this stance to higher arts education, then, dealing with the conversations and tensions that arise from real-world learning partnerships is fundamental to ongoing professional development and professional identity formation. The discussion and “encounters in the real world” seek to inform key questions that relate to university–community partnership’s impact on expanding professionalism in relational terms, how they inform and shape identities, the ethical considerations required within such “disruptions”, and the role of reflexivity to foster critical engagement. The value of such reflexive practice is highlighted in one particular study carried out with student arts educators in an after-school music project.
