The College of Education (CoE) recognizes the crucial roles played by other institutions and persons in providing professional and field-based experiences to our candidates, and facilitating induction into the professional community. The college recognizes as teacher preparation partners all parties cooperating in providing training sites and participating in the provision and of training, providing enriching and induction professional learning and development activities such as workshops, and participating in the administrative processes of organizing and monitoring field-based experiences as well as enacting and reinforcing partnership and clinical experiences’ processes and policies. The main partner of CoE if the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the government and international schools. Preparation partnership is based on shared interest in and responsibility for the quality of the college programs and graduates. The partners’ interest is motivated by the fact that they are the stakeholders who are directly impacted by the outcomes of CoE’s programs, being the potential employers. The ministry also contributes to the college’s programs as its goals and curricula constitute one source directing the content and goals of CoE programs. Partners also share the responsibility for providing quality field-based experiences both intensively in student teaching courses and in early short experiences related to academic course projects and early professional experiences. They also collaborate in follow-up of CoE graduate employed by partners through facilitating collection of information that guide the assessment and development of the college’s programs and in elevating the quality of its graduates and fulfilling its mission. This partnership is consolidated through establishing channels for facilitating communication between the partners such as the Field Experiences Advisory Committee (FEAC); establishing guidelines for partnership areas and partners’ roles, which is moderated mainly through the program of collaboration between CoE and MoE and its enacting committees; in addition to the through the continuous professional collaboration between CoE and the schools through FEST.

Teacher preparation partners are those collaborating with CoE in the provision of field experiences and enriching professional activities, as well as the management of the implementation of field-based process. The main teacher preparation partners include:

• College of Education and its academic departments and administrative units.
• Sultan Qaboos University units that participate in the provision of some intensive and short field-based experiences, such as 
  • Child Care Centre
  •  Student Counselling Center.
•   The Ministry of Education
  •   The Field Experiences Advisory Committee (FEAC) 
  • The Program of Collaboration enacting committees 
  • Government schools, which host field experiences and student teaching for all college programs and participate in supervision (click here for a list)
  • International schools, which host field experiences and student teaching for some college programs and participate in supervision (click here for a list)
  • Omar ibn Al-Khattab Institute for the Blind
• The Specialized Centre for Professional Training of Teachers (website: http://havasapps.com/test/moe/ar/)

The Field Experiences Advisory Committee constitutes one of the main channels for communication and collaboration between the college and its main partner—the Ministry of Education. Its principal aim to consolidate partnership and strategic planning of field experiences. The Field Experiences Advisory Committee was founded in the academic year 2013/2014 under the title “the Field Experiences Advisory Board” to represent the partnership and effective cooperation between CoE and MoE. Its members represent the various stakeholders consisting of four members representing CoE faculty and eight members representing MoE. MoE members are a male teacher, a female teacher, a male supervisor, a female supervisor, a male school principal, a female school principal, an administrative supervisor and a representative from the MoE private schools’ directorate. The title later changed to the “Field Experiences Advisory Committee” with no essential changes in membership selection procedures and aim, but with more elaborately defined goals that represent the stage of partnership development. The most crucial of these aims are recommending student teaching sites and reviewing student teaching placement to ensure the most effective of experiences. It is worth mentioning that during the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on field-based experiences, FEAC played a crucial role in facilitating the placement of candidates and the communication with the various schools all over the country through the Directorate General of Education of each governorate, which supported the distant supervision processes employed during the period.

The Field Experiences Advisory Committee is responsible for collaborating with the college in the following:

1. Supporting the vision and mission of the Field Experience and Student Teaching Unit that strives to establish sustainable partnership with the Ministry of Education and procedures for the effective management, planning, implementation and assessment of field-based experiences for college candidates.
2.  Placement of candidates applying for student teaching in partner schools in light of the student teaching conditions and guidelines.
3. Developing field-based experiences for both undergraduate and postgraduate candidates.
4. Advising the college with regards to the selection of sites for field-based experiences in practical and academic courses.
5. Advising the college with regards to the selection of cooperative teachers in light of the criteria for cooperative teacher selection agreed upon in the Program of Cooperation of the Ministry of Education and Sultan Qaboos University.
6. Participating in College of Education’s meetings with candidates and Annual Student Teaching Days’ data review and making improvement recommendations.
7. Participating in FEST activities such as the provision of workshops, and research initiatives so as to support FEST goal achievement.
8. Discussing challenges that candidates, cooperative teachers and supervisors face in partner schools and suggesting solutions.
9. Promoting the concept of field-based training and the culture of student teaching within the partner schools and the ministry of education communities.