Conference Agenda

Background and purpose:

Practicum – the school-based component in initial teacher education - is a much debated topic in teacher education discourses. Amount and timing of practicum differ over the world, as well as its design and structure. The making of practicum is grounded in different interests – e.g. in higher education and schools as well as in policy-making – that not seldom conflict with each other (Zeichner, 2010). Teacher education practicum is also a widely debated in research on teacher education see for instance (Clandinin & Husu, 2017; Cochran-Smith & Lyttle, 2025; Forsström & Munthe, 2023; Lindblad, Nelhans & Samuelsson, 2024).

The aim of the symposium is to explore and analyse teacher education practicum as an assemblage of interacting heterogeneous parts. A special interest for the symposium is in knowledge politics – how epistemic authority is tied to institutions, infrastructures, classifications, and policy regimes (Foucault, 1980) – at work in the making of practicum.

The following research questions are put forwards:

1. What politics of knowledge are at work in the making of practicum among different agents in teacher education?
2. How do teacher students and teacher educators experience practicum and position themselves in relation to the school and the academy?
3. What systems of reason are at work in the making of practicum in teacher education?

Answers to these questions will be presented in the different studies by means of research reviews, discourse analyses in policymaking and in teacher education at different levels (international, national and local) combined with interviews with teacher educators and teacher students. Based on these studies we will discuss teacher education as an assemblage – how can we understand the making of teachers out of teacher students – and how do the different agents in the assemblage contribute to this based on what kind of interaction?

Theoretical framework:

The symposium is based on the idea that teacher education is a contingent, dynamic composition of heterogeneous elements (people, things, discourses, institutions, technologies, affects) whose relations generate emergent capacities not reducible to the parts (deLanda, 2016) out of which practicum emerges. Of special interest is how these parts re-present other parts in the assemblage, and how practicum is coded and recoded as well as territorialized by different agents. What systems of reason – historically formed “rules and standards” that make certain ways of thinking, seeing, naming problems, and proposing solutions appear reasonable and self-evident in education (Popkewitz, 2014) – are at work among these parts in the making of teacher education practicum? Important is here the politics of knowledge of different agents (including research) in coding and territorializing teacher education practicum.

A few words about the symposium papers:

The different papers in the symposium are presenting different parts of the practicum assemblage – in policy discourses (Mikhaylova, Pettersson, Wärvik), teacher students’ experiences (Lindblad & Samuelsson), in research reviews (Forsström &Munthe) and in systems of reason (Popkewitz) at work in the teacher education assemblage. What do they represent of the assemblage as parts and interacting agents and with whom are they interacting in coding and territorializing teacher education practicum? The idea is to explore the practicum assemblage by (a) presenting analyses of the different parts, and (b) how these parts are dealing with other parts, as a way to improve our understanding of how the assemblage is working.

Significance:

The proposed symposium will provide important knowledge contributions considering knowledge politics at different levels in teacher education policy and practice and how different agents are working as an assemblage in making of teacher education practicum in different contexts. It will serve as a basis for European research cooperation on teacher education.

This paper investigates how knowledge politics – that is, shifting valuations of what constitutes legitimate theoretical and practical knowledge – have shaped the historical development of teacher education (TEDU) in Sweden. Although current public and political debates repeatedly claim that TEDU has become “too theoretical” or insufficiently connected to classroom realities (SOU 2024:81), these concerns are not new. Indeed, since the late nineteenth century, reform commissions have alternately problematized such concerns as overly academic and theoretical, overly method-driven and practice-oriented, or as inadequately aligned with school-needs. To understand these long-term dynamics, the paper draws on assemblage theory (De Landa, 2016; Gorur, 2011; Savage, 2020), conceptualizing TEDU as a historically contingent assemblage, composed of heterogeneous agents, like policy frameworks, academic disciplinary knowledges, schools, teacher educators, student teachers, assessment practices, and public discourses about teaching. An analytical point of departure is that the value assigned to different forms of teacher knowledge is not inherent but emerges through the arrangement and stabilization of these components at different historical moments. Knowledge politics operates within the assemblage as territorializing and de-territorializing dynamics, elevating some epistemic forms while marginalizing others. Reforms thus constitute attempts to reconfigure the assemblage, redistributing authority, and reshaping how theory and practice are articulated. The empirical material comprises approximately 80 policy documents, including government inquiries, reform proposals, and official evaluations, spanning the late nineteenth century to 2024. The analysis traces key actors, discontinuities, and recurring strategies for stabilizing or renegotiating the theory–practice relationship. Preliminary findings show that emergent capacities of reform making as narrated in the documents are centered on methodology, psychology, didactics, problem-based learning, or, more recently, cognitive-scientific approaches. Thus, the reforms did not simply introduce new curriculum elements. Rather, they reterritorialize relations among agents such as scientific disciplines, institutions, and professional actors in emergent capacities to act. For example, extended practicum and professional-development schools anchored TEDU more firmly in school practice, whereas expanded research components and subject-specific academic requirements strengthened the university’s position. Yet, since each of these moves modify existing relations rather than establishing entirely new ones, the underlying tensions, such as those between theory and practice, persist rather than disappear.

De Landa, M. (2016). Assemblage theory. Edinburgh University Press. Gorur, R. (2011). Policy as assemblage. European Educational Research Journal, 10(4), 611–622. Savage. G. (2020). What is policy assemblage? Territory, Politics, Governance 8(3), 319–335. SOU 2024:81. Ämneskunskaper och lärarskicklighet - en reformerad lärarutbildning. Utbildningsdepartementet.

Voices of Teacher Students are often missing in research on teacher education (TEDU) practicum (e.g. Allen & Wright, 2014; Grudnoff, 2011; Lindblad et al, 2024) though practicum – here school-based parts of teacher education – is much debated in teacher education discourses, for instance in terms of a theory-practice gap. In this study we are asking teacher students about their experiences of practicum as part in a teacher education assemblage (DeLanda, 2016) out of which competent teachers are expected to emerge. In research on teacher education practicum has sometimes been regarded as a technical question, sometimes referred to as a matter of contradiction between different interests and positions in the TEDU assemblage (Zeichner 2010; Cochran-Smith & Lyttle, 2025). Here we take the second position based on previous research results plus the complex organisation of TEDU where different institutions (higher education, profession, schooling, and policymaking) are expected to cooperate in the making of TEDU. The current study is carried out in a context where TEDU has gone through thorough reforms the last decades. Practicum – including supervision - has expanded and become more structured. In a study 2002 (Calander et al, 2003; Lindblad et al, 2005) we analysed teacher students’ experiences and conceptions of their education. This gives us possibilities to compare student voices in 2002 and 2026. Research questions: 1. What are teacher students’ experiences and conceptions of practicum? 2. How do they conceive of the relevance of their university-based teacher education? 3. What is the impact of policy reforms of practicum on teacher students’ experiences and conceptions of practicum? Answers to these questions will be discussed in relation to information of other parts of the teacher education assemblage. Research design: In an ongoing study we compare responses by TS to surveys in 2002/03 and in 2025/26. In 2002 the response ratio was 68 percent (784 individuals). We expect for 2025/26 in sum 650 student responses. Analyses of TS opinions will be related to their background, school experiences and career expectations. Comparisons between the different cohorts are based on differences in design of practicum 2002 and 2025. Preliminary results: Results from the 2002 studies will be presented and compared to the ongoing field study considering practicum experiences and professional identities .

Allen, J. M., & Wright, S. E. (2014). Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum. Teachers and teaching, 20(2), 136-151. Calander, F., Jonsson, C., Lindblad, S., Steensen, J., & Wikström, H. (2003). Nybörjare på Lärarprogrammet. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2025). Teacher Learning in Communities¹. Handbook on Teachers’ Work: International Perspectives on Research and Practice. Grudnoff, L. (2011). Rethinking the practicum: Limitations and possibilities. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 223-234. Lindblad, S., Samuelsson, K., & Nelhans, G. (2024). Lärarutbildningsforskning i Sverige och Internationellt: Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 29(1-2), 122-156. Lindblad, S., F. Calander, & S. Callewaert (2005): Lärarutbildningar: Rekrytering och yrkesidentitet under omstrukturering. I Utbildningsvetenskap – Resultatdialog och Framtidsblick. Vetenskapsrådet Zeichner, Ken (2010). Rethinking the Connections Between Campus Courses and Field Experiences in College- and University-Based Teacher Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 89-99

This paper will present results from a study of Nordic research on practicum in initial teacher education (ITE) programs. The Nordic countries are interesting to compare and contrast as they are often perceived as fairly similar and the term “a Nordic model” is often used to express similarities in values and approaches in government and steering. However, there are some interesting differences in teacher education especially pertaining to who provides the teacher education, what academic level the education has, and which goals are defined for ITE programs. A systematic scoping review of Nordic research on teacher education has been carried out and published along with an interactive gap map (Forsström & Munthe, 2023). A scoping review can be conducted for several purposes (Gough et al., 2017), for instance as a precursor to a more narrow systematic review or to identify studies for deeper analyses. In this case, we will use the studies already categorized as practicum studies to conduct deeper analyses. Research questions: What are the different knowledge areas that researchers provide insights into, and how do they go about this? Are there any differences across the Nordic countries – and if so – how can we describe these differences? Methodology: Out of a total of 830 scientific articles identified in the scoping review, 166 articles were categorized as “research on practicum”. All articles are peer-reviewed and published in English in international journals. The articles will be analyzed to identify: 1. What are the main areas of interest in research on practicum across the Nordic countries? (What are the topics/ research questions?) 2. What is the purpose of the study – to which end has it been conducted? 3. Who are the informants / which artefacts are being studied? 4. Which designs are used? 5. What methods are used? 6. What are the main results? Information extracted from the articles related to the six above questions, will serve as data used to further analyze and synthesize qualitatively what areas and types of knowledge we gain insight into, how we know and what we know from the research.

Forsström, S., & Munthe, E. (2023). What characterizes Nordic research on initial teacher education: A systematic scoping review. Nordic Studies in Education, 43(3), 241-259. Gough, D., Oliver, S., & Thomas, J. (2017). Introducing systematic reviews. In D. Gough, S. Oliver, J. Thomas (Eds.), Introduction to systematic reviews (2nd ed.). London, UK: Sage.

Examined is international teacher education research concerned with the “professional teacher” whose expertise is formed through the practices of teaching. The infrastructure of the research is examined to understand how this kind of person is imagined, then produced and indexed as a kind of person as a regulatory ideal in the training of the teacher. The “professional” is produced and made intelligible through an infrastructure connecting the analytical reason of content/pedagogical content with cybernetic systems theory, curriculum models of science/mathematics education, and technologies of measurement. The phenomena indexed as the professional teacher performs as form as a regulatory ideal in the training of teacher’s subjectivity. The research appears international, with geographical strong clusters in North American and Europe, but also East Asia and South America. The non-polemic projections are given as global but historical specific governing principles of governance that brings into view issues of epistemic coloniality that traverse the distinctions of the Global North/South. Unseen but moving in-between lines in the Web’s visualization are rules and standards of “reason” that give intelligibility to the matters of teacher education. Central to this chapter are what travels in between the naming of authors journals, and geographical locations are forms of knowledge that generate distinctions and classifications about the professional that teacher education is to produce. The focus is on research about the professional teacher as a projection of a kind of person embodied in international articles on teacher education identified in the Web of Science. The Web of Science is a sophisticated statistical strategy to recognize the frequencies, dispersions and networks in the production and utilization of knowledge in the sciences. The epicenter of categories are equivalences of agents: authors, institutional, and journal, and geographical networks and nodules of most cited articles and authors in English language teacher education journals. Of those articles, six are examined as exemplars to explore the knowledge systems through which teacher education is classified and ordered in the making of the professional teacher. The paper concerns how the theories, technologies and empiricism of the human sciences related to education enact desires in its forms of knowledge. The desires are embodied in how the science generate phenomena that “acts” as real and projections about the potentialities and differences of kinds of people. That comparative reason about people seems non-polemic but acts materiality to differentiate who “we” are, should be, and who does not fit into and abjected.

Popkewitz, T. (2014). Social epistemology, the reason of “reason” and the curriculum studies. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22, 22-22.