Partnerships in teacher education (TE) is a strategy to work together to resolve a common problem or a problematic context (Baumfield) and current international policy documents state the importance of partnership between schools and higher education (R. Farrell, 2021). How different actors develop partnership is of profound interest.

In Report to Parliament in Norway (2016–2017) a new model for competence development introduced with the intention of creating a closer collaborative partnership between (TE) and schools. The intention is that partnership will contribute to competence development in TE on the grounds of a long- term system for equally cooperation between teacher educators, students, and schools. Ultimately, the partnership will also contribute to bridge the theory - practice gap in TE and make the TE more relevant for the schools. Norwegian policy documents and research imply that the Norwegian TE does not balance practice and theory well enough (Dahl et al., 2016; Finne et al., 2014; NOKUT, 2006, 2010). In addition, the TE has also been criticised for being too distant and less relevant for practitioners (Finne et al., 2014; Svarstad, 2020).

Lillejord & Børte (2016) describe partnership as a strategy to develop and improve the TE and provide new learning for all involving parties. Moreover, they utilize the concept “third space” to explain how the participants within the partnership meet and collaborate. “Third space” describes the possibilities for knowledge building and close collaboration among the interacting participants in the partnership (Folkvord & Midthassel, 2021). On this backdrop, this study seeks to bring forth knowledge concerning the impact of the partnership on TE from a teacher educator`s perspective, both on an individual and collective level.  The research question is: How do teacher educators experience and evaluate the impact of the partnership between schools and their own institutions? The aim of the study is to explore the understanding of the teacher educators own actions and outcomes of being a part of the partnership.

The theoretical framework rests on cultural -historical activity theory (CHAT), formulated by Engeström (1987) with the attention on the communication differing perspectives of actors and in what way each actor`s thinking and reflection appear within their contexts. Hence, partnership may be understood as boundary practices and activities that bring together multiple participants with different roles, experiences, and areas of expertise where ideas from research and practice can interact (C. C. Farrell et al., 2022). The theoretical understanding of partnership is drawing on cultural-historic activity by using the concepts boundary crossing and boundary practice (Penuel et al., 2015). Partnership boundaries are referring to the different cultures that characterize the different institutions (Folkvord & Midthassel, 2021). The actions of the participants become apparent within their activity systems. Rather than focusing on each actor`s individual characteristics, CHAT aims more at interactions between actors (Engeström & Sannino, 2021). CHAT seeks to understand multiple dialogues, perspectives and voices of the actors in and activity system, such as TE, interacting with other activity systems, like schools.

This study is relevant for TE programs all over Europe because it investigates the partnership`s impact on the TE from the teacher educators’ point of view. Partnerships deal with cooperation, mutual learning and development, and more knowledge about how the TE can benefit from a long term cooperation with schools is necessary.

This study makes use of a qualitative research design using individual interviews as a method for collecting empirical data. Individual interviews will provide in-depth data and detailed information (Flick, 2018) on experiences and evaluations of the impact of the partnership on the TE. This enables the researcher to uncover subtle or latent features of the phenomena (Lune & Berg, 2017). The data collection was conducted through semi-structured individual interviews over a two-year period (2022-2024). The participants were partly selected through strategic recruitment and the selection criteria was a connection with both the TE and the practice field. The TE institutions involved are chosen based on geographically and size criteria. The participants were participants within three institutions. The interviewees were teacher educators and some of them had co-ordinational functions either at an institutional level or in connection with the schools. The participants were interviewed to describe own experiences in the partnership and how they evaluate the partnership`s impact on the TE, both on an individual and a collective institutional level. They were asked to describe their understanding ot the partnership as a phenomena and how they utilize their understanding of the partnership as an active part in the partnership. In addition, the informants were challenged to describe how they would improve the partnership arrangements to become more beneficial for their institutions to. The data from the interviews were analysed using concepts from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework in the process.

The preliminary findings show common descriptions of partnership as a phenomenon and as a mean to improve the TE. The interviewees referred to the same framework, such as public steering documents, however the data differ on the evaluation of how the partnership is beneficial for the TE. In addition, the interviwees share evaluations of the impact on individual bases, especially how the partnership provides access to data. The teacher educators are expected to do research in addition to teach. Consequently, informants have either published or are in a process of publishing research articles. Nevertheless, the informants have different experiences on how fellow researchers outside the long-term engagement with schools participate in collaborative research in connection with the partnership. One informant reported “I often knock on the door and ask a professor within a field suitable for one of my projects and more and more of them show interest”. Another informant report both lack of interest and knowledge about the partnership: “Most of my colleagues don`t even know about what I`m talking about when I share my experiences from the practice field”. In sum, teacher educators have different experiences on inclusion and acknowledgement within the different TEs. Some of the interviewees reported that they felt outside their own organisation and another informant experience curiosity and appreciation from fellow colleagues. The experiences of the status working as a researcher within the partnership not only varied between institutions, but also within the institutions. The teacher educators at the different institutions convey shared appreciation of the partnership as a mean to improve the TE, but use different vocabulary and evaluations on how the partnership will make an impact on the TE. Possible implications suggest that “big ideas” such as partnership between TE and schools, are rhetoric words that need to begrounded more in institutions.

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