Becoming professional teachers: innovative practicum in school-university partnerships

Practicum is a key component of teacher education (TE), yet student teachers often reproduce established practices rather than develop innovative approaches. This study explores how an innovative practicum in school–university partnerships enables student teachers to develop ownership of their practice and reshape their role within the professional community. The context for the study is an innovative practicum model developed through collaboration between partner schools and a TE institution. The data comprise meetings involving student teachers, mentor teachers and campus teachers and were analysed using thematic analysis, informed by the theory of Practice Architectures. The findings suggest that ownership emerged not simply through opportunities to experiment with innovative teaching approaches, but through a practicum design that deliberately redistributed responsibility for pedagogical decision-making. This supported student teachers in contributing expertise recognised by mentors and colleagues, reshaping traditional mentor–student relationships and supporting inquiry-oriented professional learning. The study contributes to research on TE by demonstrating that the potential of innovative practicum lies in the practice architectures that enable professional responsibility, reciprocal learning and collaborative inquiry. The findings have implications for the design of practicum in school–university partnerships seeking to prepare student teachers for increasingly complex and innovative educational contexts.