The role of theory in teacher education: reconsidered from a student teacher perspective

Abstract

With the persistent criticism of teacher education as a backdrop, this article explores the common perception that teacher education is too theoretical. This article takes the view that the student teachers’ assumptions regarding the concept of theory affect how they engage with theory during initial teacher education. Using a qualitative approach, this study examines student teachers’ conceptualizations of the nature and role of theory in teacher education. The results indicate conflicts between student teachers’ assumptions about theory in general and pedagogical theories in particular, and also between a narrow conception of the nature of theory and a more nuanced understanding of the purpose of theory. Student teachers’ encounter with pedagogy as an academic discipline—with a different epistemology than the one they know from their discipline-specific studies—seems to cause considerable struggle that often ends in a devaluation and denigration of theory in teacher education. The implications of these findings for teacher education are discussed.

Keywords:

• theory–practice relationship
• teacher education
• pre-service teachers
• student teacher beliefs
• pedagogy

Notes

1. Mephistopheles von Faust: ‘Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie. Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum.’ [Grey, dear friend, is all theory. And green the golden tree of life].

2. She uses the semantic theory system to analyse educational theories. For a detailed analysis, see Kvernbekk (2005).

3. As an example, see the debate between Paul Hirst and Donald J. O’Connor. Hirst claimed that education is science, and that ‘the function of theory is to determine precisely what shall and what shall not be done, say in education’ (Hirst 1970) In contrast, O’Connor, claimed that educational theories are not scientific, as the primary aim is practical and not epistemological (O’Connor 1957).

4. Kvernbekk uses the notion ‘pedagogical theories’ as the term for theories in teacher education.

5. Each year has two terms. Thus, these terms are the first part of the third year and the second part of the fourth year.

6. In 2013, a new national curriculum was released for five-year combined degree programmes. However, the participants in this study were taught under the previous curriculum regulations.

7. The students were at the end of the fourth year of the combined degree programme, but the fifth year is dedicated in full to their master’s thesis.

8. In the science programme, the students studied mathematics and one science subject (chemistry, biology or physics). In the language programme, the students studied either two of the following languages: Norwegian, English, German, French and Spanish, or one of those languages in combination with social science, geography or religion.

9. The category belongs to university is not an in vivo code, but contains statements such as ‘curriculum literature’ or ‘theory is something we need for our exams or assignments’.

10. These could not easily be counted, and therefore they are not included in the table.

11. Piaget’s theory as described in Richard Skemp’s book The Psychology of Learning Mathematics.

12. Used in the meaning of a person with a background in the natural sciences.

13. He uses the metaphor of a ship (the walls within the hull of the ship). This is a common expression in the Norwegian language to describe the (often unwanted) situation in which things are kept apart without the possibility of interacting.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ela Sjølie

Ela Sjølie is a PhD candidate in Programme for Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; e-mail: [email protected]; blog: http://elasjolie.com. Her interests center on student teachers’ learning. The title of her PhD-project is ‘Pedagogy is just common sense: pre-service teachers as students in higher education’.