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Through our review of the recent third space professional experience scholarship
that follows, it is our intention to analyse how third space theory has so far been
applied to understand professional experience partnerships, to make suggestions
that might reduce the risk of further dilution and misappropriation of the theory and
to identify opportunities for further research into its value. Three themes emerged
from our analysis of the research on third space partnerships and professional expe-
rience. They are presented and discussed in detail as follows: First, the application
of third space theory to frame new professional experience partnership models and
practices in schools and the community; second, the application of third space as a
way to explore and understand preservice teacher identity; and third, the use of third
space to explore and explain the tensions inherent in teacher educator identity in the
context of their professional experience work.
Third Space as Way of Framing New Professional Experience
Models and Practices
The professional experience component of preservice teacher education programs
often relies heavily on cooperation between universities and schools for authentic
opportunities for professional learning. It has been long argued that without coop-
eration, and indeed partnership between the two spaces, the disconnection between
theory and practice will continue to grow. In his seminal paper, Zeichner ( 2010 )
called for a paradigm shift and renewed focus on the ‘hybrid spaces in teacher edu-
cation where academic and practitioner knowledge and knowledge that exists in
communities come together in new, less hierarchical ways in the service of teacher
learning’ (p. 89). There are several examples within the literature that explore the
purposeful creation of hybrid spaces, and therefore hybrid roles and relationships,
within professional practice partnerships.
The recent changes in funding models in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in
England are an example of an alternative context for such hybrid spaces to emerge.
In the English context, funding that traditionally went to universities is now being
redirected towards schools to recruit and train teachers. Jackson and Burch ( 2016 )
report on ‘School Direct’, a program whereby schools apply for funding to train
teachers on site, thus usurping the role traditionally played by the university. The
schools in this model take ownership of teacher knowledge and the application of
such knowledge. However, in this hybrid third space, schools are required to work
in partnership with an ITE provider who becomes responsible for the quality of the
training. The third space created in this model enables the intersection of practitio-
ner and academic knowledge and thus assists in reducing the gap between the
theory- practice divide (Zeichner, 2010 ). The model as described by Jackson and
Burch turns traditional roles and relationships upside down with the participants in
the model grappling with the creation of new roles, new identities and new ways of
interacting. As such, although a purposefully created ‘space’, the consequences of
R. Forgasz et al.