Sharada Gade, in drawing on her long association with a mathematics teacher in Sweden, theorises the complexities of the teacher-researcher collaboration as an expansive learning activity that has developed over time. In this paper, an alternate reading of the teacher-researcher collaboration is offered, one that adds to the analysis provided by Gade, but which draws on the conceptual lens of the cultural interface. We build on Gade's theorising by further explicating the relational space that emerges when teachers and researchers come together. We argue that it is the emergence of this space that can restrain or facilitate the trajectory of collaboration.