Unpacking team teaching in innovative learning environments - teachers’ experience in practice

New types of learning spaces accommodating larger cohorts of students and enabling team-based teaching practices have emerged globally, presenting new opportunities and challenges for teacher interactions. These spaces, often referred to as innovative learning environments (ILEs), are associated with pedagogical approaches such as team teaching. This study unpacks team teaching in two case schools with ILEs, each characterised by distinct organisational structures. Teacher interviews provided data analysed through a model identifying a continuum of teacher interaction. Findings reveal that while co-location and coordination lay the groundwork for managing shared spaces, achieving pedagogical cooperation and collaboration requires deliberate strategies to realise pedagogical visions. This study contributes to the literature by incorporating spatial dimensions into the analysis of team teaching. It underscores the critical yet underutilised role of spatial design in facilitating effective team teaching and offers a framework for understanding the complexities of team teaching in contemporary educational contexts.