‘Walls up, walls down’: How enduring and shifting ILE practice architectures shape preservice teachers' practicum experiences

Over two decades of innovative learning environments (ILEs), the complexity for teachers transitioning to these spaces has been highlighted. Consensus highlights the importance of preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) for ILEs through alignment of initial teacher education with ILE philosophy and practice. However, empirical studies are scarce beyond advocacy. Little is known about how PSTs navigate ILEs during practicum and the practices that have proved important to them. We interviewed 21 PSTs and graduates from one New Zealand ITE programme in focus group interviews over 8 years to explore their experience of learning to teach in ILE practicums. Through a theory of practice architectures framework in this article, we identify and illustrate the practices PSTs identify as vital to negotiating ILEs successfully and examine how these interact with enduring arrangements that prefigure their practice potential. We construct three time slices from our longitudinal data: 2016, 2018 and 2024. Our study contributes a rare longitudinal illustration of ILE practicum practice over time, the enduring practice architectures related to student agency, collaboration and technological integration as well as how these have morphed over time as PSTs work to enact local versions within the circumstances available to them. We contribute a missing piece as a basis for responding to advocacy for integrated ILE and ITE practice. We offer implications for ITE and practicum preparation practices to forge coherence across schools and ITEs that will be of value to teacher educators and associate teachers.