Collaborative efforts between higher education institutions and schools/kindergartens have been dominated by academic discourse (Daza, Gudmundsdottir & Lund, 2021). Establishing partnerships between stakeholders in education (see e.g., Coburn & Penuel, 2016; Munthe & Rogne, 2015) is therefore considered an important approach in education. In teacher education for example, the scholarly literature on partnerships is rich; however, some partnership models are less functional in practice (Lillejord & Børte, 2016). Still, how partnerships are constructed and organized is rarely discussed in the literature on partnerships (Daza et al., 2021), and little is currently known about the strategies employed by researchers and practitioners to address problems faced in partnerships (Coburn & Penuel, 2016).

This study explores a Norwegian policy initiative aiming to establish partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools and kindergartens. In 2018, Norwegian policymakers released a national strategy for teacher education and professional development in schools, aiming to improve cooperation between teacher education institutions, school and kindergarten owners, and so-called teacher education schools and teacher education kindergartens (Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, 2018). The strategy called for research informed partnerships and highlighted the need to conceptualize, operationalize, and maintain such partnerships.

To enact the strategy, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (MoER) appointed two multi-party groups: 1) the National Forum for Teacher Education and Professional Development, consisting of stakeholders from trade unions, teacher education institutions and The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, and 2) an Advisory Council for Teacher Education 2025 (ACTE 2025). The role of ACTE was to provide the National Forum with a research and experience informed knowledge basis. ACTE functioned as an expert body, providing analyses and recommendations for use in the implementation of the strategy. ACTE’s members represent students, teacher educators, researchers, administrators, and local authorities, as well as policymakers. ACTE 2025’s empirical and analytical work is documented in two reports; one detailing how the knowledge basis for partnerships evolved and one communicating recommendations (Aarre et al., 2020a, 2020b).

Here, we present the ACTE2025’s work on conceptualizing and developing the notion of partnership in teacher education towards recommendations to be implemented. Our study builds on a multi-level approach that involves policy level, institutional and leadership level, and individual perceptions and experiences as they unfold among participants (including agentic students) in partnerships. Drawing on socio-cultural perspectives on epistemic practices and educational development (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; Wells, 1999; Wertsch, 1998), our study is guided by three research questions:

1. How can we conceptualize educational partnerships that go beyond everyday collaboration and address problem areas, dilemmas and transformation in a longitudinal perspective?
2. What would such partnerships require from participants and their working contexts?
3. What recommendations can be made to operationalize this aspect of teacher education policy?

We conceptualize partnerships as requiring participants to perform acts of boundary crossing (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011) and to co-construct “third spaces” (Daza et al., 2021). Boundary crossing involves overcoming discontinuities in objectives, practices, and perspectives. In partnerships in education, this may involve reaching shared understandings, achieving common goals, or developing more robust communities (Fjørtoft & Sandvik, 2021). A third space perspective acknowledges tensions and multiple perspectives as constitutive of less hegemonic and asymmetric partnerships. We argue that this theoretical perspective has explanatory power when understanding and developing educational partnerships.

We adopted a mixed methods approach (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998) consisting of three phases. This methodological approach made it possible to study both etic and emic dimension of partnerships. The mixed methods approach avoided too severe reduction. The unit of analysis was primarily relational and not the complete and multiple activity systems involved (Lund & Vestøl, 2020). First, to map the status of partnerships, all 21 teacher education institutions in Norway were contacted by e-mail to respond to a questionnaire with 46 closed and open questions. We also asked for local policy documents describing the organization of the partnerships. 18 institutions responded. Responses reflected a diversity of despatchers, both administrative and academic staff and with a variety of positions, from Dean via practice coordinators to mid-level administrators. Responses also included existing or planned partnership agreements. ACTE 2025 received 22 documents from 12 institutions. Second, we conducted five dialogue seminars involving 17 representatives from local authorities and 25 leaders from kindergartens and schools. A shared procedure including semi-structured questions for the seminars was developed. The Council was represented by one or two members at each of the five locations. The three-hour seminars partly covered general issues such as experiences concerning rationale for partnerships, equity between partners, and affordances of the partnership, partly more focused issues such as collaboration regarding practice periods for students, R&D, and organizing principles. Thus, the dialogue seminars provided opportunities to pursue findings from the survey as well as resembling focus group interviews providing in-depth and emic data to produce thick descriptions of participant perspectives. Third, drawing on thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and guided by our research questions, we analyzed the data. We focused on constructing themes related to the conceptualization, operationalization, and maintenance of teacher education partnerships. Based on the themes constructed, we outlined six prototypes reflecting partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools/kindergartens. The prototypes represented different stages in partnership development and different types of teacher education (e.g., vocationally oriented teacher education, teacher education for kindergartens, comprehensive schools).

The findings documented great variety in how partnerships were conceptualized, operationalized, and maintained. Several examples served as models of relevant practice, but remained “pearls without a string”: components without sufficient integration. Three models amounted to shared perceptions of how partnerships brought about school/kindergarten development; both student mentors, teachers and the institution experienced a boost to professional development and increased educational quality. Students were often integrated in partnerships, not merely as representatives but also as agentic participants influencing teacher education practices. However, collaboration on study designs or programs remained the privilege of teacher education institutions. Also, collaboration on supervising students in the process of writing their bachelor or master’s thesis emerged as a field in need of partnership efforts. Conceptualizing partnerships in education as third spaces can be used to analyze existing partnerships but also to construct new ones, to examine how participants enact hybrid identities, and how participants may have to part with (perceived) privileges and status. Thus, a third space is no idealized or romantic vision but a framework, a space or an arena for transformation and development. The study questions whether it is possible to create specialized teacher education schools and kindergartens, and discusses how insights and practices from single institutions can be scaled up. Finally, the project on partnerships resulted in a series of recommendations from the ACTE. These addressed the need for long-term financing, establishing joint arenas for sharing experiences, disseminating and advancing knowledge, and developing supporting material to aid the initiatives and efforts from agents engaging in establishing partnerships.

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