The Republic of Ireland has witnessed a transformative reform agenda in teacher education, stemming from internal trends, increased emphasis on supranational ranking indicators, and recommendations from national and international reviews of exist-ing teacher education. As part of this reform agenda, the Teaching Council of Ireland has espoused models of higher education institu-tion (HEI)-school partnerships, crystallised in Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education (Teaching Council, 2020) and Guidelines on School Placement (Teaching Council, 2021). Using critical dis-course analysis, we unpack how language is directed to two key partners within the policies, namely higher education institutions and schools. Findings unpack a range of agendas at play that are undermining the notion of partnership, including how language can displace the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders. We conclude with a call for further critical policy research in teacher education, given the wider policy and political influences at play. This paper offers a theoretical-oriented framework that can support a critical reading of such policies.