Current international policy documents on teacher education are peppered with the word partnership and there seems to be an assumption that there is a common agreement regarding understandings of ‘partnership’. Traditionally the university has been the decisive voice in educational partnerships which has often led to a power differential as well as a failure to fully maximise the potential of the partnership. Based on interviews with school leaders [n = 10], student teachers [n = 10], co-operating teachers [n = 10] and university tutors [n = 10] associated with an initial teacher education (ITE) programme in a university in the Republic of Ireland, this article provides a synthesis of this range of stakeholders’ views on how school-university partnerships can be optimised. The major themes that emerged from the research data included: (1) misconceptions about degrees of partnership in ITE and of roles therein; (2) the key role of the co-operating teacher and ‘close-to-practice’ research in fostering a ‘third-space’ in ITE and (3) a sense of malaise in relation to levels of pressure, change over-load and lack of adequate resources.

目前关于教师教育的国际政策文件中充斥着伙伴关系这个词，而且似乎有一种假设，即对“伙伴关系”的理解达成了共识。传统上，大学一直是教育合作伙伴关系中的决定性声音，这常常导致权力差异以及未能充分发挥合作伙伴关系的潜力。基于对学校领导 [ n  = 10]、实习教师 [ n  = 10]、合作教师 [ n  = 10] 和大学导师 [ n = 10] 与爱尔兰共和国一所大学的初始教师教育 (ITE) 计划相关，本文综合了这一系列利益相关者关于如何优化学校与大学伙伴关系的观点。研究数据中出现的主要主题包括：(1) 对 ITE 中伙伴关系程度及其角色的误解；(2) 合作教师和“接近实践”的研究在培养 ITE 中的“第三空间”方面的关键作用以及 (3) 与压力水平、变化过载相关的不适感以及缺乏足够的资源。