Engaging in self-study to support collaboration between two-year colleges and universities

Physics faculty at three two-year colleges (TYCs) and a public, comprehensive four-year university (FYU) have been collaborating for over five years. The collaboration began with the implementation and refinement of novel instructional tools for use with diverse student populations and now includes a Learning Assistant program. To improve the collaboration, illuminate elements of TYC/FYU partnerships, and develop successful strategies for this type of collaboration, a qualitative self-study was conducted using a lens of structure and agency. The focus of this paper is the intersection between whether the partners are consumers or producers within the partnership and if the focus of the partnership is specific curricular products or the process of collaboration. The study has implications for methods of initiation and continued development of TYC/FYU partnerships.