This paper locates the iSTEP institute within the broad literature on global educational reform (e.g., Baker & LeTendre, 2005; (Darling-Hammond 2010) and teacher education (Tatto and Menter 2019). The transnational diffusion of the of the iSTEP Institute follows a collaborative, “grass-root” pattern, and the success of this diffusion suggests that efforts to reform teacher education need to be centered on key principles that are identified by both research and practice and are then elevated to a central theoretical status, leaving room for practical variation based on local conditions, national policies, and other contextual factors. We document that engagement of local practitioners as active researchers is critical to successful change efforts. As Kim, 2019 wrote: “In many ways, however, the ubiquitous challenge of bridging the divide between a controlled efficacy trial and a real-world effectiveness trial compels scholars to rethink the role of practitioners in experimental research.” However, this alone is not a sufficient condition for diffusion. The explicit focus on equitable access to learning for all students provides a unifying vision as well as a central metric to assess implementation success. The genesis of the iSTEP Institute and its founding principles focused participants on key pedagogical choices and decisions which they then applied to their own national context. Members began to connect with teacher educators around the world, and the evolution of a loose network of participant collaborators further opened up insights about how to adapt and apply the principles in differing national contexts. This ongoing, trans-national interaction sparked the realization that there is, in fact, a foundational set of principles of powerful teacher education (PTE) that draw from a substantial (yet evolving) body of research that can be applied globally. But that the instantiation of the core principles in practice requires a set of processes in order to adapt material and address differences in culture and the organization of schools as well as professional learning in different local and national contexts. This paper distinguishes between principles, processes, and practices and the relevance and influence of context, providing examples of how the broader project dealt with conflict or concerns about changes wrought by local adaptation.

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