Book excerpt: ​This book examines contexts and possibilities in Aotearoa New Zealand education contexts arising from the international trend for open, flexible, innovative learning environments (ILE), specifically on the pedagogical load. The book responds to questions such as: What does it mean to teach, learn or lead in an innovative learning environment? What happens when teachers move form single cell learning spaces to open, collaborative ones? The chapters provide examples of how teaching in new spaces can be an exciting challenge for teachers and students where they try new ways of teaching and learning, and rethink the purposes of learning and the implications of societal change for learning and what is valued. Examples are drawn from pre-service teachers working in primary and secondary schools and in-service teachers learning to become professionals. The book offers insights into a variety of educational contexts where teachers and students learn and adapt to new learning spaces, and also how different teaching and learning partnerships may be conceived, and flourish. It focuses attention on a range of aspects that teachers, school leaders, and other educators, and researchers may find valuable when they embark on similar initiatives to consider issues pivotal to productive and effective innovative learning environment design, development and implementation.