Consistent with educational reform efforts, this study examines traditional roles of teacher educators, university researchers, and public school personnel and addresses the following questions: (1) What role can the university play as change is initiated within public schools? (2) In order to create a culture for change, how must the traditional roles of university and public school personnel change? and (3) How does meaningful school and university collaboration develop? The participants, a teacher educator/researcher at The Florida State University and the teachers and principal at Sabal Palm Elementary School (Florida), engaged in a collaborative action research project. Interviews, journal entries, and field notes suggest that: building collaborative teams of teachers, administrators, and university faculty has tremendous potential to affect educational change and reform; building such teams means that the traditional relationship between university researchers, teacher educators, and school practitioners must be reconceptualized; and the collegiality and reflection experiences are not unlike the sharing that goes on in a family. The family metaphor evolved as a viable referent for exploring issues inherent in building university school collaboration as well as for establishing a school culture for change. (LL)