Norwegian Teacher Education Research Articles

Computational thinking in Norwegian teacher education: An analysis of mathematics and science course descriptions

Computational thinking in Norwegian teacher education: An analysis of mathematics and science course descriptions

Developing professional digital competence in Norwegian teacher education: a scoping review

The widespread use of educational technology in schools compels teachers to seamlessly integrate technology while developing students’ digital competence. As educational technology continually evolves, digital competence becomes a dynamic target. Thus, teacher education must effectively prepare student teachers to teach effectively with technology. Researchers are increasingly examining the concept of teachers’ digital competence and how teacher education supports student teachers’ acquisition of digital skills for future employability. In Nordic countries like Norway, the term Professional Digital Competence (PDC) frames a teacher’s essential knowledge for using digital technology in teaching and learning. Despite this focus, there’s limited understanding of how Norwegian teacher education fosters PDC. This scoping review investigates current research on PDC and its implementation within Norwegian teacher education. Findings from numerical and thematic analysis offer insights into the prevalent types of PDC research. Thirty-four peer-reviewed papers were identified and coded along three dimensions: (1) theoretical perspectives, (2) research questions and methods, and (3) application and implementation. The review reveals a predominant focus on student and teacher educator perceptions or self-assessments when measuring digital competence. Our findings show that professional digital competence in teacher education is diverse and multifaceted. However, there are gaps in the current state of knowledge. To address this, we propose a definition and a framework to guide teacher educators. Future research should broaden participant profiles and involve a more diverse group of educators.

Tensions between the political, institutional, and project levels when developing professional digital competence in teacher education. A cultural historical activity theory analysis of inhibiting and facilitating factors

ABSTRACT This study is a Cultural Historical Activity Theory analysis of the tensions between object and motive at the political, institutional and project management levels for five digitalisation projects aimed at integrating professional digital competence (PDC) in Norwegian teacher education (TE). The study is inspired by ethnography and builds on a variety of qualitative data (including qualitative interviews (N = 14)) gathered through the author’s participation in different roles (2017–2021). Identifying objects and motives across levels allows for the identification of factors inhibiting and facilitating factors the development of PDC in TE. An analytical model was developed to identify the objects and motives at each level, showing a political object of preparing for the future, an institutional object of creating high quality TE, and a project management object of delivering a lasting impact on TE. These differing objects and motives guide the activities at each level and reveal tension, including between the political push for change, project management’s attempts to deliver impact, and a culture built on academic freedom which seems counterproductive by slowing things down. The study also reveals facilitating factors, such as funding and relevance in collaboration with schools, and inhibiting factors like academic freedom and the expected speed of change.

Finding the right fit or fitting what is found? Contextualising connections between international student mobility and quality in teacher education

ABSTRACT The political promotion of international student mobility in the Nordic countries is underpinned by claims about its contribution to quality enhancement in higher education. Yet, this link is scarcely elaborated and is an understudied issue empirically. This article presents the findings of an interview study exploring the recontextualisation of this policy discourse by micro-level actors in Norwegian teacher education. Analytically, it employs quality perspectives to unpack the ideas that underlie the planning, learning process and envisioned outcomes associated with mobility. The article finds that quality is associated with clearly envisioned personal and professional outcomes of mobility; yet, it is also shaped by unclear notions about the learning process involved and constraints set by the practical possibilities for organising it. The article argues that the malleability of quality and the uneasy nature of student mobility in teacher education involves a risk that mobility becomes instrumentalised and loses its educational value.

Exploring student teachers’ aesthetic learning processes

ABSTRACT This case study explores arts-based teaching and learning in generalist teacher education by focusing on student teachers’ aesthetic learning processes in a professional workshop. The workshop is included in a Norwegian teacher education programme, where the student teachers learn about and through aesthetic learning processes. By asking what the student teachers emphasise about the learning processes, the study seeks an in-depth understanding of the case from student teachers’ perspectives. Multiple qualitative data sources have been analysed holistically and interpretatively, leading to three categories that reflect emotional, intellectual and practical qualities of aesthetic learning processes. The findings and the discussion highlight how the learning processes expand student teachers’ perception of learning, as well as how emotions seem to constitute a moving and cementing force in creating spaces for new understandings. Student teachers’ professional development in arts-based teaching and learning is further discussed.

The Psychosocial in Norwegian Teacher Education in Light of Epistemic Objects and Therapeutic Culture

In this article we examine how therapeutic culture disseminates into and affects teacher education in Norway. This is done through a close examination of knowledge practices revolving around the term psychosocial. Based on fieldwork data and drawing on Karin Knorr Cetina’s concept of epistemic objects, we analyse how the psychosocial is practised, taught, and interpreted in a Norwegian primary and secondary teacher education institution. We identify three key epistemic characteristics of the psychosocial: ubiquity, emotional orientation, and self-centeredness. Due to its oscillation between compatibility and friction, the psychosocial is both nurturing and disruptive, intuitive, and demanding, meaningful and alienating. More broadly, the application of the psychosocial in teacher education can be understood in light of the interplay between intellectualisation and emotionalisation processes in modern societies. By providing insight into a previously unexplored area, the article contributes to new understandings of the changing cultural conditions of the teaching profession.

Engaging with indigenous perspectives in mainstream Norwegian teacher education: Collaborative autoethnography as a path toward decolonial indigenization

ABSTRACT This article reports on a collective learning project with the aim of integrating indigenous perspectives in a teacher education program in Norway. The Norwegian educational system is legally obliged to emphasize Sámi perspectives, a strategy that has been described as indigenization. However, inclusion of Sámi perspectives is often done without challenging colonial power-relations. Our project was based on a reading circle engaging with texts by indigenous authors, performing a collaborative autoethnography. The purpose of collaborative autoethnography is not the self-narrative, but a relational process of reflexively critiquing the situatedness of the self. Our collaborative autoethnographic work aimed at disidentifying with ongoing coloniality in academia. Through the article, we share our learnings on how performing autoethnographic work can be a path toward moving ourselves to action for decolonization. We argue that if teacher education is to move toward an indigenization that is decolonial, “unlearning” of epistemological monocultures is vital.

From international competition to intercultural competence

This study explores international practicums in Norwegian teacher education. The study is based on a qualitative survey of teacher education institutions in combination with discourse analysis of the white paper on the internationalisation of education (Meld. St. 7 (2020—2021)). The aim is to contribute towards synthesising knowledge on the use of international practicums as an internationalisation strategy in Norway. The survey finds that international practicums are widely used, yet variations in content, form and implementation exist between different institutions. This is explained by how international practicums are neither regarded, nor rewarded as a formal internationalisation strategy in Norway. Analysis of the white paper reveals tensions between different educational discourses on internationalisation. While the discourse analysis identifies political recognition of international practicums in teacher education, the Norwegian Government remain reluctant to recognise international practicums as a formalised internationalisation strategy. The study concludes that this prioritisation risks undermining parts of the fundamental purpose of internationalisation, which is understood as the integration of international, intercultural and global dimensions throughout the educational system.

Epistemic justification in multiple document literacy: A refutation text intervention

This study investigated the effects of a refutation text intervention on Norwegian teacher education students’ (n = 150) beliefs about justification for knowing and their subsequent performance on a multiple document literacy task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they read a refutation text that promoted the conception that an appropriate way to judge the trustworthiness of information about educational topics is to rely on personal understanding and practical experience, the expertise of the author, or comparison of multiple sources. Results showed that participants’ beliefs about epistemic justification were strongly influenced by the intervention. Beyond effects on self-reported justification beliefs, effects on participants’ selection of documents varying in terms of the expertise of the author and the stance toward the issue discussed across the documents were observed, as well as effects on how participants justified their document selections, processed the selected documents, and finally used them in their written task products. As such, the effects of the intervention targeting beliefs about epistemic justification transferred to various stages of the multiple document task.

Relevant Transformative Teacher Education for Future Generations

In this article, we investigate the need for a relevant transformative teacher education when current and future societal challenges have been decisive in defining a Norwegian education reform where interdisciplinarity in specific topics is judged crucial to current and future generations in the new National Curriculum. At the same time, Norwegian teacher education is criticized for not teaching relevant content and, hence, contributing to schools’ challenges to teach for future needs. This study is part of a larger research project engaging with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and OECD’s call for 21st Century Skills. The data material analyzed for this article is two-fold: (1) Regulatory documents for schools and teacher education account for the mandate given both educational levels, particularly examining similarities and differences in addressing interdisciplinary themes, methods, and assessments; (2) Questionnaire responses from 906 teachers, 155 student teachers, and 121 teacher educators respond to how they work with interdisciplinary education. The mandate assigned to the different levels of the education sector initially displays high ambitions for relevant education for a rapidly changing future. However, entering into the details, curricula seem contradictory at different educational levels, conservative, and with limited intentions of moving toward new and needed skills. Teachers are in general positive to interdisciplinary work, understand the significance to both society and individual, yet traditional activities of teaching prevail. Student teachers also judge interdisciplinary work as important but report little exposure during their teacher education. Teacher educators conduct interdisciplinary work mainly on their own but report a willingness to learn from colleagues. This study illustrates interest in, yet challenges with, interdisciplinary work across educational levels, and indicates a need for relevant transformative teacher education to be at the forefront, making educational content and methods responsive to the challenges future generations of teachers need.

Om pedagogisk forskning ved norske lærerutdanninger. Pedagogikkutdanneres oppfatninger av pedagogisk forskning

The topic of this study is pedagogical research at Norwegian teacher education schools. The research question we ask is: How should, according to educationists, pedagogical research in teacher education be perceived? The purpose of the study is to provide a picture of the educationists’ opinions of problem areas and questions regarding pedagogical research. To map this, we use an exploratory mixed method, with a qualitative preliminary study and a quantitative main study. The theoretical framework describes the main features of the institutional development and perceptions of Norwegian pedagogical research and appears as a background for the analysis and discussion. The findings show individual differences among the educationists of our study concerning perceptions of pedagogy as a research field. We found no systematic variation between different educational institutions or background variables (gender, teaching or research experience). This implicates a discussion of pedagogic as research area in order to strengthen pedagogic as a scientific discipline.

Assessment Dialogues in Mentoring in Norwegian Teacher Education: Tensions between Different Forms of Knowledge

Assessment Dialogues in Mentoring in Norwegian Teacher Education: Tensions between Different Forms of Knowledge

Digital Competence in Teacher Education Curricula

This qualitative study aims to contribute to the discourse on teacher educators’ knowledge by examining the impact of digitalisation. To explore how digital competence is addressed in local curricula and what is expected of teacher educators (TEDs) in terms of preparing student teachers for epistemic changes, I thematically analysed the programme descriptions, course descriptions, and plans for school practicum from six Norwegian teacher education institutions. The findings show that TEDs are expected to focus on the (pedagogical) use of digital tools. However, they are also supposed to teach student teachers how to foster pupils’ digital skills and digital responsibility while addressing digitalisation’s influences on society and culture, subjects’ contents, and educational practices. The findings imply that TEDs need an understanding of digitalisation’s implications for epistemic practices to foster student teachers’ digital competence and transformative digital agency.

The Janus Face of Professional Knowledge: What Organizational Principles Are behind the Students’ Perceptions of Professional Knowledge in New Norwegian Teacher Education?

Integration of theory and practice is the key element in the research on teachers’ professional knowledge. Traditionally, this topic has created a polarization between practical and theoretical knowledge. The reform in the new Norwegian teacher education has introduced a new and watered-down concept of knowledge and research-based knowledge in education. With the reform, conflicting perceptions have arisen of what we can understand with professional knowledge in teacher education. Based on Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory, and with examples from a study of students’ R&D papers, this paper sheds light on the conflicting concept of professional knowledge in new Norwegian teacher education. The paper refutes a generic concept of knowledge and argues that teachers’ professional knowledge is based on practices that are informed by specialized forms of knowledge in the subject area.

From Global Competition to Intercultural Competence: What Teacher-Training Students with Cross-Cultural Teaching Experience Should be Learning

ABSTRACT This study explores how cross-cultural practicums can facilitate intercultural learning in Norwegian teacher education. The qualitative research reported here studies teacher-training students carrying out a teaching practicum in Tanzania. The findings indicate that there are several positive intercultural outcomes for these students. However, by analysing their narratives discursively, the study also finds that many students overestimate their progress towards intercultural competence. This is particularly the case when the students experience significant “cultural clashes”, which tend to result in them expressing stronger stereotypes about the cultural “other”. It is argued that this is due to how the students have received largely monocultural socialisation. Consequently, this study calls for greater scrutiny of the ideologies that underpin globalisation. Thus, in an attempt to shift the focus away from globalisation's drive towards cultural competition, this study argues for the need to infuse critical and comprehensive approaches to internationalisation into teacher education.

Stress-coping Strategies amongst Newly Qualified Primary and Lower Secondary School Teachers with a Master’s Degree in Norway

ABSTRACT Research studies have documented the causes of perceived stress in teachers, while less attention has been given to identifying appropriate stress-management strategies. The aim of this article is to provide insight into the strategies for coping with stress that newly qualified primary and lower secondary school teachers with a five-year integrated master’s degree from a Norwegian teacher education institution employ in their daily work after three years in the profession and the characteristics of these strategies. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with 27 teachers. The study shows that the teachers manage stress through: a) openness with and support from colleagues and family, b) shielding and escape, c) learning established stress-coping strategies and d) planning, structuring, and lowering ambitions. The themes are discussed with theoretical concepts of problem-, emotion- and relationship-focused coping strategies. The study discusses the limitations of Norwegian teacher education related to the handling of work stress.

A Case Study of Specialized Science Courses in Teacher Education and Their Impact on Classroom Teaching

ABSTRACT Specialized science courses (SSCs) integrate content knowledge (CK) with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) for reform-oriented teaching. Studies of individual SSCs report positive short-term outcomes, including an increase in self-efficacy and CK. However, few studies explore the longer-term impact of SSCs on classroom teaching. We carried out an exploratory case study of three PSTs from a Norwegian teacher education program that included SSCs. In the context of their field practicum, we compared PSTs’ teaching of topics taught in SSCs (aligned lessons) with topics not taught in SSCs (unaligned lessons). Data collection consisted of field observations of one aligned and one unaligned lesson as well as stimulated recall interviews based on video recordings. In our analyses, we compared PSTs use of instructional strategies in aligned and unaligned lessons and how their knowledge for teaching informed these instructional decisions. We found that SSCs supported PSTs in using more topic-specific instructional strategies when teaching aligned lessons. In the aligned lessons, their teaching was better informed by knowledge of students’ understandings in science. We also examined PSTs’ perceptions of how they drew upon SSCs in their classroom teaching. They reported that SSCs had a major impact on their CK, PCK and self-efficacy for science teaching. Through this study, we provide unique insights into how PSTs draw on SSCs in their classroom teaching. We include implications for further research and the design of SSCs.

The Icarus Effect Rephrased: Range of Semantic Gravity and Forms of Knowledge in New Norwegian Teacher Education

In the 2000s, several major education reforms have been implemented in Norway. The reform in the teacher education is heavily inspired by the Finnish model, with introduction of a new research-based content, with the aim of developing a new type of professional knowledge, as a basis for teachers’ professional practice. Drawing on Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory, this paper explores the tensions in the new Norwegian teacher education, between knowledge and ways of knowing, by examining students’ practices, expressed in students’ research and development papers in the new teacher education. The paper refutes a one-dimensional concept of experience-based practical knowledge in the teacher education and argues that professional knowledge is based on practices that are informed by specialized and theoretical knowledge.

The impact of specialised content courses on student teaching in a Norwegian teacher education programme

ABSTRACT In recent decades, most Nordic countries have seen reforms in their teacher education programme, giving rise to an ongoing debate on these programmes’ content, structure, and quality. As part of a recent reform of teacher education in Norway, new Master’s-level programme have been introduced to educate teachers for grades 5–10, whereby pre-service teachers (PSTs) take specialised content courses and undergo field placements twice a year. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of the specialised content courses on student teaching. In this study, we used a survey design to collect quantitative data from PSTs and qualitative data from mentor teachers. PSTs teaching subjects they specialised in had a more positive teaching experience related to perceived learning outcomes in subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. The data from mentor teachers reinforce this finding; they reported that PSTs who taught subjects they specialised in showed faster learning progressions, were better at using different instructional strategies, and reflected more during guidance. The link between the specialised content courses and student teaching increases the coherence of the programme.

The reception of Vygotsky in pedagogical literature for Norwegian teacher education

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