While multi-professional collaboration is an essential component of inclusion in many European education systems, co-teaching (also referred to as team teaching) is a central structural feature of inclusive education in only some of those systems. Despite extensive research evidence and strong policy commitments to inclusion, a persistent research–practice gap remains regarding how co-teaching is conceptualized, implemented, and sustained in everyday classroom practice. This symposium brings together scholars and practitioners from Finland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, and France to examine how co-teaching research is interpreted, contextualized, and enacted across diverse European educational systems. The symposium is chaired by an internationally recognized co-teaching scholar from the United States to facilitate cross-national dialogue and support comparative understanding across contexts.

Guided by the overarching research question—How is co-teaching conceptualized, supported, and implemented across European contexts, and what factors contribute to persistent research–practice gaps?—the symposium adopts a comparative, cross-national perspective grounded in inclusive education theory, sociocultural perspectives on collaboration, and organizational change frameworks. Methodologically, the symposium integrates qualitative policy analysis, comparative document analysis, surveys, case studies, classroom observations, and interview-based research.

The symposium consists of four co-presented papers, each intentionally pairing researchers from neighboring or culturally connected countries. Each presentation models collaborative co-teaching principles while examining empirical findings related to policy alignment, professional roles, leadership structures, and classroom practices. Together, the papers explore how co-teaching is legitimized or marginalized within national policy frameworks, how professional collaboration is structured in practice, and how educators experience the effectiveness of co-teaching for inclusive instruction.

• Session 1 (Finland & Sweden) examines differences in how co-teaching is represented in policy documents and research traditions, highlighting why the practice is formally established in Finland but remains largely absent in Sweden.
• Session 2 (Austria & Germany) investigates the tension between multi-professional cooperation and co-teaching, identifying structural and conceptual barriers within highly segmented school systems.
• Session 3 (Switzerland & Denmark) focuses on practitioner experiences, analyzing how policy frameworks either support or constrain sustainable co-teaching practices.
• Session 4 (Belgium & France) provides quantitative and qualitative evidence on implementation patterns and perceived instructional effectiveness of team teaching.

As chair and moderator, Dr. Wendy W. Murawski (2Teach Global; California State University Northridge) facilitates coherence across sessions and supports integrative dialogue. Dr. Bea Zumwald (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) serves as discussant, offering a European scholarly synthesis of the papers and reflecting on implications for future European research, policy, and practice.

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