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Introduction
Immersion programs within initial teacher education are learning experiences
organised and supported by universities and schools that offer opportunities for a
co-teaching/co-learning model to exist (Cook & Friend, 1995 ). Immersion pro-
grams enable the preservice teacher and mentor teacher to negotiate shared respon-
sibility for planning, delivering and evaluating instruction for a group of students.
They provide an authentic learning experience for preservice teachers where they
are involved and mentored across all aspects of school life. Immersion programs
also allow for a ‘third space’ (Zeichner, 2010 ) where preservice teachers’ practical
experiences in schools are reconceptualised to create a learning community in
which all participants are actively involved in the development of their professional
knowledge and skills. We argue that the immersion context responds to Zeichner’s
(p. 89) concern about the ‘commonly existing disconnection between the campus
and school-based parts of teacher education programs’.
Collaborative partnerships between a university and school(s) are essential in
immersion programs to ensure preservice teachers have sustained and supported
teaching and learning experiences within a school setting. Immersion programs
enable school and university personnel to work together to ensure that any possible
disconnections between university theoretical learning and in-school experiences
are meaningfully integrated through purposeful links between theory and practice.
The purpose of immersion programs is to help connect on-campus learning with
real school classrooms (see Bahr & Mellor, 2016 ). Immersion develops an inte-
grated learning environment for preservice teachers so they can develop a compre-
hensive understanding of schools, classrooms and student learning, as well as
confidence in their own teaching capabilities and their readiness to enter the teach-
ing profession. This chapter showcases four school-university immersion programs
across diverse locations in Australia. The context, structure and implementation of
each immersion program are discussed, implementation tensions and vulnerabilities
are highlighted, and recommendations for future immersion programs are proposed.
However, caution exists with presenting these as exemplars as Bahr and Mellor
( 2016 ) suggest, ‘the variability of teaching contexts, learners and teaching areas
restricts the generalisability of the findings’ (p.49).
Initial Teacher Education Programs
Over the last 100 years, teacher training has moved from the traditional school-
based pupil-teacher apprenticeship model to one in which there is structured learn-
ing of educational theory in higher education institutions coupled with practical
teaching experiences in schools. The role of Australian initial teacher education
providers is to teach teachers how to teach, and schools the place where preservice
teachers practise teaching (Dyson, 2005 ). In Australia, the original 2-year teacher
S. Tindall-Ford et al.