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conceptions of what practice/practise looks like, who benefits, who is challenged,
how have matters come to be as they are, what could be changed and so on. All of
these matters ‘hang together’ in what Schatzki (2012, p. 16), who has exercised a
significant influence on Kemmis and associates, sees as ‘practice arrangement
bundles’.
Developing these arrangements through partnerships is critical to the enterprise
of educating preservice teachers. The form and function of partnerships varies.
They may be bureaucratic, designed to meet a set of predetermined requirements
such as the burgeoning ethos of constructing teaching standards; organisational, to
do with logistics, for example, the placement of students; democratic, subject to
negotiation; and participatory, contributing to the development of new and innova-
tive relationships.
Irrespective of the motivation to form partnerships, with regard to initial teacher
education, an underlying requirement is the manner in which networks that will
enable such partnerships evolve. Networking embodies ‘the processes through
which professional knowledge is received and transmitted by means of personal
relationships ... (It) is a social process which occurs both within and between the
formal structures and boundaries of organisations’ (Anderson-Gough et al. 2006,
p. 232). For those charged with the responsibility of designing and implementing
professional experience in schools, it is essential that the emergent plans are founded
on the kind of network experience that ties the various contexts together, but impor-
tantly does not trammel them such that they result is some kind of cultural
reproduction.
Schooling embodies a range of cultural formations that are extremely robust and
enduring and are transmitted from one generation to another through the action of
its agents. While not making an argument for schooling as a cultural singularity,
trapped in a time warp, it is nonetheless possible to claim that there are features of
schooling that persist within the institution of the school and the classroom through
the roles and behaviours of those who are in residence. Destabilising the cultural
forms of schooling is a major challenge. Arguably, it is only possible to contribute
to change at the margins. It is for this reason that the invocation of ‘the third space’,
discussed so eloquently in this book, is so significant as a means of a more powerful
and profound interruption.
It is not the intention of this foreword to draw attention to each individual chap-
ter, but I have chosen to spend some time on Chap. 3 , as for me, it embodies a criti-
cal dimension that will inform the reading of the subsequent chapters. It moves us
beyond professional experience to ongoing professional learning, to address issues
of compliance, conformity and cooperation and the tension between being class-
room ready and classroom concerned, and considers the complexity of creating
professional learning experiences in the field. Its thrust is to enter the ‘third space’
between teacher education in the university sector and practice/practise in schools
by drawing attention to programs, complexity and identity. The chapter reflects the
strong arguments made by Rorrison (2005) that the perceived theory-practice gap is
not only figurative but also literal leading to confusion and uncertainty. In a poi-
gnant reference in the chapter, Williams (2013, p. 128) points to her own dilemmas
Foreword