Conference Agenda

Processes of globalisation increasingly shape educational contexts across Europe. Diversity, multilingualism and mobility no longer characterise classrooms alone, but have become defining features of teacher education and the professional lives of those who work within it (Murray et al., 2021). Recent scholarship emphasises that internationalisation should not be treated as a marginal add-on, but rather as a transversal task embedded across teacher education systems (Wild et al., 2025). In response, European education policy has placed growing emphasis on transnational collaboration within a European Education Area.

Teacher educators, as key actors in shaping teacher education, are increasingly involved in such cross-border and time-limited initiatives. Yet research suggests that transnational collaboration often remains under-theorised and insufficiently understood within studies of teacher educators’ professional contexts (Karvounaraki et al., 2018). While policy frameworks articulate ambitious expectations regarding partnership work, such as shared understanding, identity development and co-construction, less attention has been paid to how these partnerships are actually enacted in practice and through which processes they are sustained, negotiated or challenged over time.

This paper addresses this gap by examining Erasmus+ partnerships as transient transnational communities (TTCs): temporary, heterogeneous and activity-centred social formations in which participants come together for a bounded period of time to work towards agreed outcomes (Mortensen, 2017; Oesterle et al., 2020). Drawing on a qualitative longitudinal case study of an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership involving teacher educators from five European universities, the study raises the following research question: How do interactional processes in TTCs explain the gap between policy expectations and partnership practices in Erasmus+ projects?

Drawing on theoretical approaches from Teacher Education Research and Sociolinguistics, this study is guided by a social constructivist research perspective, rooted in Berger and Luckmann’s (1991) concept of the social construction of reality. From this perspective, partnerships are not treated as fixed organisational arrangements, but as socially produced and continually negotiated formations that emerge through everyday practices and interactions.

Empirically, the paper synthesises multiple qualitative data sources collected over a three-year Erasmus+ project, including policy and project documents, interactional data from face-to-face meetings, and participants’ video-based reflections and evaluations.

The integrative synthesis leads to four overarching findings. First, dialogues and discussions emerge as central “time-spaces” in which learning, identity, power and belonging are continuously negotiated. In TTCs, this dialogic work requires ongoing self- and other-positioning as well as engagement with fundamental values, concepts and professional assumptions, which constitute key dimensions of professional identity (Evans, 2008).

Second, the document analysis and phenomenological data reveal a pronounced policy-practice gap (Oesterle, 2025). While European education policy strongly promotes transnational collaboration and formulates ambitious partnership goals, policy texts remain largely at the level of aspiration. Practice-oriented project reports describe how collaboration is organised, but rarely explicate why particular decisions are made or which processes underpin partnership dynamics.

Third, the interactional analyses demonstrate that these underlying processes become visible only through close attention to everyday interaction (Oesterle & Schwab, 2024). Making such processes explicit is crucial, as what remains invisible cannot be critically questioned (Maly, 2024).

The findings point towards implications for leadership and management. They suggest that TTCs require relational forms of leadership, deliberate moderation of dialogic spaces, and institutional frameworks that recognise time, trust and interactional work as core resources. Moreover, findings highlight irritation and challenge, including ambiguity, diversity and linguistic tensions, as under-theorised but productive drivers of relational and transformative learning processes. The paper concludes by outlining concrete strategies for embedding such Erasmus+ project communities more sustainably within higher education institutions.

The European education programme Erasmus+ supports people in the fields of education, training, youth, and sports in Europe and, to some extent, beyond. Its aim is to contribute to sustainable growth, high-quality employment, and social cohesion in society, while at the same time strengthening European identity and active citizenship (European Commission, 2025, p. 6). Achieving these goals requires cooperation between actors at different levels of the education system. With regard to general education, Rolff (2019) has shown that school authorities play a decisive role in designing, managing, and facilitating educational processes. Hornberg, Becker, Sonnenburg, Peitz & Schreiber (2025) investigated international exchange and learning mobility in the field of Erasmus+ programmes. As one of the few empirical studies in this area, they discovered that school authorities in Germany can support the implementation of Erasmus+ in schools by creating governance structures that provide exchange between different levels of administration.

Following on from this, an empirical study entitled “ERASMUS+ European Partnerships for School Development: A Research Study on Challenges, Opportunities, and Impacts” is currently being conducted (unpublished manuscript by Hornberg, Zimmermann & Zipp-Timmer, 2025). The subject of this study is the “European Partnerships for School Development” (European Commission, 2026), which are introduced in the current Erasmus+ programme period. These partnerships are aiming to strengthen international cooperation in school development through collaboration between schools and school authorities from different countries in order to “ensure the exchange of knowledge, including the testing of innovative methods, and to create long-term momentum.” (ibid.)

International collaborative projects in vocational education and training for people with learning difficulties or attributed intellectual disabilities are gaining in importance against the backdrop of increasing globalization, securing skilled labor, and inclusion efforts (EASPD, 2025; Cedefop, 2024). They enable the systematic exchange of knowledge, concepts, and best practices between different national education systems and contribute to the further development of inclusive qualification approaches (Pereira, Kyriazopoulou & Weber, 2023). In the area of vocational participation of people with intellectual disabilities in particular, international cooperation opens up new perspectives for the design of needs-based training models, the promotion of self-determination, and the improvement of transitions into the general labor market. In this context, the use of artificial intelligence as a supportive technology in vocational education and training is increasingly coming into focus, as AI-supported systems can enable individualized learning processes, adaptive assistance, and the structuring of vocational action steps. This article reflects on the current ERASMUS+ project “EN-AI-BLE: Empowering People with Intellectual Disabilities through AI-Enhanced Electronics” and identifies international collaborative projects as key drivers of innovation within inclusive vocational education and training (Pereira, Kyriazopoulou & Weber, 2023). Based on interdisciplinary cooperation between special education, educational science, and computer science, the project explores the potential, challenges, and structural and ethical framework conditions of AI use.

The international joint project Erasmus+ Project EN-AI-BLE (KA 220, duration 12/2025 – 11/2027) aims to improve the employability and social inclusion of people with learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities through AI-supported, barrier-free vocational training in the field of electronics. Adaptive learning technologies, gamified learning settings, and the awarding of recognized micro-credentials are used to create sustainable access to the labor market for the target group and promote digital participation.

The paper goes beyond a descriptive presentation of the project and pursues a theory- and criteria-based evaluation perspective that analyzes international partnerships as key factors in the effectiveness of Erasmus+ projects. Building on the updated criteria for international cooperation (OEC, 2019; DEval, 2021) and approaches to partnership governance in transnational education projects (Lange & Alexiadou, 2020; Kosmützky & Putty, 2016), the study examines how actors from special education, vocational training, AI development, and labor market integration cooperate, what negotiation processes take place regarding roles, knowledge bases, and responsibilities, and how new forms of shared practice emerge.

The paper focuses on the question: What challenges do international projects pose for the underlying evaluation concept? The article presents the project's evaluation concept and critically discusses the project's impact at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels.