Eames, Chris W.DePetris, Thea2018-05-1120182018-05-112018Eames, C. W., & DePetris, T. (2018). A collaborative community education model: Developing effective school-community partnerships. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 33(3), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2017.260814-0626https://hdl.handle.net/10289/11819Despite school-community partnerships having much potential to provide educational organisations with authentic teaching and learning opportuni- ties through community-based action projects, they remain under-utilised largely due to the structural constraints and pressures faced by teach- ers. This study helps ll a gap in scholarly discourse about the speci c ways in which school-community partnerships can effectively be developed by providing an in-depth account of an 18-month pilot project with the aim to develop a conservation education program (Kids Greening Taupo ̄) through a partnership structure in Aotearoa New Zealand. An evaluation of the pilot project was conducted using an ethnographic approach, which sought stakeholder perspectives about the program’s developmental pro- cess through an interpretive lens. Qualitative data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document anal- ysis, and then thematically analysed. The ndings provided in this arti- cle illuminate stakeholder insights and perspectives about the structures established and processes utilised over the three broad stages of pro- gram planning, implementation and maintenance, and the resultant envi- ronmental initiatives and programs. Through this study, a Collaborative Community Education Model has emerged that may serve as a potential framework or starting point for those interested in creating a new school- community partnership or to modify an existing one.application/pdfen© The Author(s) 2018.Journal Article10.1017/aee.2017.26