Current international policy documents on teacher education are peppered with the word partnership and there seems to be an assumption that there is a common agreement regarding understandings of 'partnership'. Traditionally the university has been the decisive voice in educational partnerships which has often led to a power differential as well as a failure to fully maximise the potential of the partnership. Based on interviews with school leaders [n = 10], student teachers [n = 10], co-operating teachers [n = 10] and university tutors [n = 10] associated with an initial teacher education (ITE) programme in a university in the Republic of Ireland, this article provides a synthesis of this range of stakeholders' views on how school-university partnerships can be optimised. The major themes that emerged from the research data included: (1) misconceptions about degrees of partnership in ITE and of roles therein; (2) the key role of the co-operating teacher and 'close-to-practice' research in fostering a 'third-space' in ITE and (3) a sense of malaise in relation to levels of pressure, change over-load and lack of adequate resources.

While challenges faced by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic have been extensively discussed, this article explores ways in which student teachers have demonstrated 'adaptive expertise' in response to a changing educational landscape that have enabled them to support schools during this public health emergency. Discerning school leaders have over the past twelve months looked to student teachers on school placement to demonstrate teacher leadership in supporting schools during the COVID-19 education crisis. This qualitative research draws on in-depth interviews with school leaders [10], co-operating teachers [10] and student teachers [10] across ten case study schools on a teacher education programme in Ireland. It highlights the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an impetus for the development of democratic pedagogical partnerships in ITE triggered by a need for collaborative engagement underpinned by responsive pedagogy and digital enhanced learning. The data also supports the view that the expertise that student teachers can offer schools in relation to their digital competence can significantly assist in fostering collaborative and reflective practice and bridge the perennial theory/practice divide.

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This small-scale design-based study describes a cyclical model of professional learning between three stakeholders in initial teacher education (ITE) namely: university-based educators (UEs), student teachers (STs) and co-operating teachers (CTs). This model promotes the development of digital learning leaders through an innovative mentoring process. This process started with university-based educators (UEs) mentoring their student teachers (STs) in the pedagogical use of Virtual Reality (VR) and the creation of re-usable learning objects (RLOs). STs were supported and encouraged to cascade this learning to their placement schools as digital learning leaders connecting the innovative practice from the university directly to their classroom practice. Through bi-directional reverse-mentoring the STs and CTs supported each other technically (with the VR) and pedagogical (through the links to the curriculum) to create additional subject-specific RLOs which the STs were able to demonstrate to the UEs on their return to university. Thus, providing the final link in the cycle of learning leaders across the triad of partners in ITE.

Beyond the very pressing immediacy of the pace of change induced by internationalising tendencies, a world without borders, there is increasing pressure on teachers to be more adept, agile, and adaptive, particularly at incorporating new and emerging technologies into their pedagogical repertoires, while international agencies, increasingly influential in this febrile landscape, proffer reform rhetorics that are superficial at best in their appreciation or understanding of local conditions, the realities of teachers’ lives and work. While an emphasis on ‘what works’ too has its limitations, what this chapter seeks to identify is not merely incremental contributions to often limited pedagogical repertoires, but to approach the considerable challenge from a sustainability perspective, sufficient to identify adaptive steps to possible futures that are hopeful, life enhancing, sustaining and sustainable, enriching the quality of teaching and learning, contributing to an emerging pedagogical praxis.