Who makes learning happen? Facilitators and actors in simulation-based learning for teacher professional learning and development

Simulation-based learning (SBL) offers teacher education a transformative framework for reflective professional learning that bridges theory and practice. While prior research has extensively explored the effects of SBL on participants, little attention has been given to the roles of facilitators and actors who co-create the learning experience. This qualitative multi-case study examines the roles and interactions of 45 facilitators and actors across multiple simulation centres. Data were collected through written reflections, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal two intersecting axes: the Safety–Learning axis, capturing facilitators’ balance between emotional safety and intellectual challenge, and the Authenticity–Learning axis, capturing actors’ negotiation between realism and pedagogical purpose. Their collaboration emerges as a professional partnership grounded in trust and dialogic reflection. By articulating these axes, the study introduces a conceptual framework that theorises the interplay between emotional and pedagogical dimensions in professional learning. This framework extends current understandings of how facilitator–actor collaboration fosters reflective, emotionally sustainable, and pedagogically deep learning, offering new directions for designing and researching SBL within professional learning and development contexts.