Lund and Hauge 2011 ) andco-configuration(Engeström 2004 ); i.e. an agenda that
involves participants from various contexts such as outlined above, and where
participants can construct meaningful learning practices and objects that can be
adapted across such contexts. Co-configuration, thus, is sensitive to changing needs
in the environment as well as of the participants involved. It will not result in a
‘finished’model but rather serve to socially and collaboratively develop functional
procedures, rules and infrastructures that prepare student teachers and teacher
educators for making informed decisions about learning and teaching.
From a Vygotskyan and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory perspective we
approach expansive, future-oriented co-configuration through three concepts that
we will argue have explanatory power when studying and, when relevant, sup-
porting phenomena that are currently evolving. First, we use the notion ofdesign
(Hauge et al. 2007 ; Lund and Hauge 2011 ) in order to operationalize a research
agenda. Design is a dialectic concept that unifies intended designs, designs for
teaching, with the appropriated and enacted designs, designs for learning. Second,
we adopt the Vygotskyan principle of double stimulation (Lund and Rasmussen
2008 ) where thefirst stimulus is a problem, a challenge, or alternatives to navigate,
and where the second stimulus consists of available cultural resources to (ideally)
be productively employed by the agent. Third, we use the concept of transformative
agency (Sannino 2014 ) in order to further unpack the relationship between agents
and tools and how understanding this relationship is vital for constructing objects
that are not always given but in the making. As we indicated above, we argue that
this is what characterizes teacher education in an increasingly multi-cultural and
technology-rich world.
Empirically, we use two cases or activities as carriers of more fundamental
principles connected to design, double stimulation and transformative agency. The
first case involves the design of an exam for student teachers integrating different
types of knowledge, use of a digital video clip, and allowing for unlimited use of
material and social resources. The second case presents an introduction to research
and development (R&D)-based practices for student teachers. The cases were not
developed for the purpose of the present study but are derived from projects
included in the activity of ProTed—thefirst Norwegian Centre of Excellence in
Teacher Education. We read the cases in a retrospective perspective to identify the
aspects within the cases that serve as carriers of the principles we focus on in this
article. The aspects identified may serve as examples of important and necessary
trajectories of change to be examined in teacher education. Although there is some
previous research which has focused on change (or expansion) within teacher
education (Ellis and McNicholl 2015 ) such change has not, to the best of our
knowledge, been studied with respect to the interaction between teaching and
learning designs and what is at stake at the interface of the two.
726 J.M. Vestøl and A. Lund