This paper reports on a collaborative two year project (September 2012 – September 2014) to enhance Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Kuwait. One project team is based at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait (CBE) and the other at the University of Hull in England (UoH). Currently trainee teachers at CBE in Kuwait complete one teaching practice in the final year of their four year degree in comparison to three teaching practices at different points in the undergraduate QTS course at the University of Hull. In partnership, the teams have identified opportunities for changes at CBE to enhance ITE provision in Kuwait, for instance in the undergraduate curriculum, assessment processes and teaching practicum. The project is underpinned by an interpretivist methodology and has used semistructured interviews with key figures coupled with observations of how trainee teachers are taught by lecturers. The project faces challenges due to the differences in the social and cultural contexts in which the two teacher training courses operate. .Interestingly the findings show a strong desire within key players in the Kuwait ITE system for ‘graduate teachers’ rather than ‘graduates’ which should help drive forward the changes required to develop initial teacher education provision effectively. At the end of Phase One of the project (March, 2013), however, support for change is increasing only slowly at a political, institutional and programme level in Kuwait
