A Companion to Research in Teacher Education

A persistent issue in research on HE is probing“how we know what we know”
(Silverman 1987 ). The present chapter has tried to expand on this line of query by
asking how we can know what weought to knowandhow to studysuch phe-
nomena. We have argued that this is crucial for teacher education in times of
fundamental challenges for the teaching profession. As a response we have pro-
posed a research agenda and approach that involve co-configuration and co-design
of activities and practices and that through the lenses of double stimulation and
transformative agency makes it possible to make emerging challenges visible for
scientific examination. In particular, we have sought to demonstrate how the notion
of design as a dual activity involving teaching as well as learning lends itself to

Table 49.1 (continued)

Case aspects Example 1: digital

exam

Example 2:

introduction to R&D

Research implications

Main object Integrated knowledge

production as an

intended object

realized in a

multifaceted way

Knowledge

production based on

scientific analysis of

classroom practices as

an intended object.

Realized as a

co-constructed effort

Focus on capturing

instantiations of the

object as well as the

processes leading up

to them

Stimulus 1 Task and instructions

requiring capacity to

integrate knowledge

sources and interpret

classroom situations in

light of scholarly

literature. Task made

available from the

start of the semester

Suggested projects

intended to develop

analytical and research

competence.

Guidelines for

observation and

interview made

available from the

start

Focus on the possible

expansive aspects of

stimulus 1

Stimulus 2 The digital video case

presented at the exam

and the study literature

and internship practice

experience available

to the students

The empirical

classroom

observations,

interviews andfield

notes and transcript

data resulting from

this

Focus on the interplay

between stimulus 1

and 2: to what extent

student teachers’

agency exploits and

develops the

expansive potential of

stimulus 1 by using a

series of stimulus 2

Transformative

agency: the

transformation of

teaching design

into learning

design

The students’

transformation of

knowledge integration

into a variety of

integration types

The students’and

university teachers’

transformation of

scientific approaches

into co-constructed

professional

competence

Focus on the dynamic

zone of interaction

between teaching and

learning design and

stimulus 1 and

stimulus 2

49 Co-configuring Design Elements and Quality Aspects in Teacher... 737