Practical and theoretical knowledge in contrast: Teacher educators discursive positions

Abstract

Higher education in general and teacher education in particular have been subjected to significant changes. As there are few studies examining how actors rhetorically position themselves within this context, the ambition of the paper is to study conversations between teacher educators related to norms and values in education. The aim of the paper is to study interpretative repertoires and subject positions that are constructed in conversations between teacher educators and to discuss these in relation to qualities in teacher education.The theoretical framework emanates from poststructuralist and social constructionist theories. The empirical material consists of group conversations with teacher educators. The findings reveal that the practical and theoretical appear to be in contrast, which in turn seem to affect education quality. Finally, implications of the findings are discussed, where a future diagonal diverse discourse, combining theoretical and practical knowledge, is argued for.