Hvordan kan lærerutdannere utvikle kompetanse for profesjonsrelevant lærerutdanning?: Erfaringer fra aksjonsforskningsprosjektet Lærerutdanningsskoler i yrkesfaglærerutdanningen (LUSY)

The aim of this chapter is to contribute knowledge about the professional development of teacher educators. Teacher educators’ competencies can be considered a key factor in the quality of teacher education. The chapter is based on results from the action research project ‘Teacher Education Schools in Vocational Teacher Education’ (LUSY), which focussed on enhancing professional relevance in teacher education through collaboration between schools and teacher education institutions. The research question in the chapter is: How can teacher educators develop their competence for professionally relevant teacher education? The tasks and professional development of teacher educators are analysed from pragmatic and critical epistemological perspectives. The empirical foundation of the article consists of minutes and logs related to initiatives aimed at teachers’ professional development within LUSY. These initiatives involve various forms of regular dialogue meetings among the teacher educators in LUSY and collaborative meetings with the field of practice. The results show that teacher educators need to develop a shared understanding of the purpose of teacher education and what professionally relevant teacher education entails. They greatly benefit from systematic collective reflection on and development of their professional activities. Structured collaboration with the field of practice is also of significant importance for the continuous updating and professional development of teacher educators. A challenge is that the professional development of teacher educators is largely left to the individual. There is a need for the teacher education institution, as an organization, to facilitate collective learning and structured, mutual learning collaboration with the field of practice.