Building Capacity in a Rural School District to Support Teacher Development in STEM Areas Through Cycles of Continuous Improvement

Our poster addresses the focal area of Building Partnerships and Collaborating, by examining how the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Fabens Independent School District (FISD) partnership was created and how collaboration developed among the partners. We examine the implementation of Liberating Structures to develop authentic relationships, establish interaction norms, and open and transparent communication. These three elements of our partnership development resulted in flattening the traditional hierarchy often present in research-practice partnerships.