Developing professional capital through technology-enabled university-school-enterprise collaboration: an innovative model for C-STEAM preservice teacher education in the Greater Bay area

Purpose - Preservice teacher (PST) professional development programs are crucial for cultivating high-quality STEAM teachers of the future, significantly impacting the quality of regional STEAM education. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as a region of cross-border cooperation, integrates the resources and advantages of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, possessing rich cultural heritage and innovative capabilities. Transdisciplinary Education for Cultural Inheritance (C-STEAM) is an effective approach to promoting educational collaboration within the Greater Bay Area, facilitating the integration of both technological and humanities education. This study aims to develop a Technology-Enabled University-School-Enterprise (T-USE) collaborative education model and implement it in the Greater Bay Area, to explore its role as a support mechanism in professional development and its impact on C-STEAM PSTs' professional capital. Design/methodology/approach - Adopting a qualitative methodology, the study interviewed PSTs who participated in a C-STEAM teacher education course under the T-USE model. Thematic coding is used to analyze their knowledge acquisition, interaction benefits with community members, and autonomous thinking and decision-making in theoretical learning and teaching practice. Findings - The findings show that the T-USE model significantly enhanced the PSTs' human capital, including teaching beliefs, knowledge, and skills. In terms of social capital, PSTs benefited from collaboration with PST groups, university teaching teams, in-service teachers, and enterprises, though challenges such as varying levels of expertise among in-service teachers and occasional technical instability emerged. For decisional capital, the T-USE model provided opportunities for autonomous thinking and promoted teaching judgment skills through real teaching challenges and scenarios. Reflective practice activities also supported PSTs' professional growth. Originality/value - This study reveals the effectiveness and internal mechanism of the T-USE model in C-STEAM PST training, offering significant theoretical and practical references for future PST education.