Conference Agenda

Different forms of knowledge are in play in teacher education and there is a debate which form that should set premises for education (Apple, 2016). Ball (2017) claims that there has been a change in the perspective of knowledge, where knowledge now is more related to the economy and to concepts as skills and learning outcome. At the same time, more focus has been placed on research-based knowledge to improve the quality and effectivity of teacher education (Hammersley, 2007). However, the relation between research-based and experience-based knowledge in education is complex (cf. Hammersley, 2007).

Basil Bernstein (2000) has described the different forms of knowledge through horizontal and vertical knowledge discourses. In the context of teacher education, this could be described as the research-based knowledge the students meet in campus-based activities and the experience-based knowledge the students face in practice (see Haugen & Hestbek, 2017). However, Bernstein (2000) makes a distinction in the vertical discourses, one with a hierarchical knowledge structure and an another with a horizontal knowledge structure. In this way, Bernstein makes a distinction in between how the research-based knowledge could be related to experience-based knowledge. Contextualized in teacher education, there is a question whether the university should play a role as provider of evidence-based knowledge ‘that works’ in practice or if the university should play a more autonomous role in relation to practice (see Hestbek, 2014).

Through the Bologna Declaration, Norway committed to a global network to improve the quality in higher education (European Higher Education Area [EHEA], 2021). As a result, in 2003, Norway implemented the Quality Reform in higher education where more focus was set on research-based knowledge to improve the quality (NOU 2003:25). On that account, Norwegian policy documents called for an integrated teacher education [ITE] program to create a more research-based teacher education close to practice in order to improve the quality (cf. Ministry of Education and Research [MER], 2017). Consequently, in 2013 the ITE program 8-13 was implemented in Norway and later in 2018, the ITE program 1-7 and the ITE program 5-10.

Therefore, this paper aims to explore the ITE programs in Norway; ITE 1-7, ITE 5-10 and ITE 8-13 and the different forms of knowledge described in the national guidelines for these programs (Universities Norway, 2017; Universities Norway, 2018a; Universities Norway 2018b). To do this, this paper explores different forms of knowledge that is formed in practice in the national guidelines for the ITE programs and who is setting the premises for the forms of knowledge identified. However, to capture the change in these programs, there has been looked at both the former and new national guidelines for these ITE programs.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)—in collaboration with the European Commission and the World Health Organization—has deemed investment in quality physical education (PE) a low-cost/high-impact action as it enables students to develop the essential physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional skills needed to become healthy, active, and engaged citizens who form the basis of sustainable development (UNESCO, 2021). Despite the recognized power of quality PE, its potential has not been fully realized in schools and universities around the world (MacPhail & Lawson, 2020). Several causal factors are implicated. Sub-optimal policies and policy configurations have been identified in a recent world-wide survey as critical factors given that policies influence virtually all aspects of PE realities (e.g., curriculum content, teacher standards, instructional practices, student outcomes; UNESCO, 2014). In response, a suite of international policy documents developed by UNESCO (and in partnership with the European Commission, the International Bureau of Education, the International Council of Sport Science and PE, the International Olympic Committee, Nike, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Health Organization) have outlined the critical need to prioritize attention to, and action on, PE policy to improve quality provision (UNESCO, 2021). These documents specify that such policy efforts are the responsibility of all the professional stakeholders involved in PE (e.g., teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, professional development providers, professional association directors). This multi-stakeholder approach is argued to increase the likelihood of policy processes and products that are inclusive, relevant, more likely to be well-implemented, and empowering for professionals. Yet, despite some positive developments in the last few years, policy neglect remains largely normative in PE (van der Mars et al., 2021). A key reason for this policy neglect is that preparation for policy engagement is rarely offered in PE initial teacher education, continuing professional development, or postgraduate programmes (Lorusso et al., 2020). Furthermore, research on what such preparation should entail has not been conducted. These deficits are despite PE stakeholders reporting their desire for policy preparation (Scanlon et al., 2022b). The consequences of this lack of policy preparation, and ultimately policy neglect, are serious. PE experts have warned that, given threats to the status of PE in many countries, continued failure to engage adequately with policy may put the future of PE, and its contributions to students’ wellbeing, at risk (Lorusso & Richards, 2018). This project aims to address the significant and urgent need to build PE stakeholders’ capacity to engage strategically in policy efforts such that the quality of PE provision may be enhanced, and important student outcomes achieved. To do so, the question investigated in this research is: what are key facilitators, barriers, and content in the development of PE stakeholders’ policy capacity? The intention is that this information can then be used to inform the development of evidence-based policy preparation initiatives in initial teacher education, continuing professional development, and graduate education within PE, education, and other public sector arenas in Europe in beyond.

Public opinion, empirical research and personal experience all suggest that teacher unions have a strong tendency for reactivity to demands for educational change expressed by governments and teachers' employers. because they are the legal organizations responsible for representing teachers' professional concerns, teacher unions are thus out in a less optimal position vis a vis promoting high quality teaching conditions. This working paper considers the perspectives of organizational leaders with lengthy tenures in teacher unions, in five different jurisdictions around the world (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United States), in order to consider the extent to which and under what conditions their organizations have been able to take proactive, agentic stances, in support of teachers, teaching, and the quality of public education, in relation to educational reforms.

The paper draws on two typologies developed by other researchers to characterize the different stances teacher unions may take with respect to educational reform. The first one, developed by Carter and Stevenson (2009) characterizes three distinct stances taken by teacher organizations. One is "resistance", reacting to plans or proposals established without their participation. Another is "rapprochement", that is going along with the plans of others for strategic reasons. The third is "renewal", a proactive stance where the union takes its cues from the realities of its own members and develops distinct ideas, proposals and plans of its own.

The second typology was articulated by Thompson and Sellar (2018) based on the writing of Deleuse and Guatari in A Thousand Plateaus. This typology identifies three distinct responses when encountering changes in circumstances. The first they call "breaks", a state of making sense of new realities in terms of previous understandings, leading to incremental shifts in sense making. The second, "cracks," reflects situations where an individual , group or organization's encounter with a new reality is not readily understandable in terms of pervious understandings, resulting in stasis: the entity is unable to make sense and thus to consider a way forward. Finally, the third type is "ruptures," where new information or unusual events trigger whole new understandings of what is possible and what appropriate actions ought to be taken.

These two typologies, taken together, enable the researchers to distinguish how, and under what conditions, teacher unions attempt to improve upon, or at least shore up, the quality of teachers' conditions of work, their professional capacities, and the quality of public education more broadly.