Profesjonalisering av lærerutdanning og kamp om fag og faglighet: et personlig essay om norskdidaktikk og lærerutdanning

This essay presents four ‘life histories’ (Goodson, 2016), each of them focusing on certain aspects of the process of professionalization in teacher education, as I have experienced them in my own professional life: 1) the development of concepts concerning the didactics of specified school subjects (‘fagdidaktikk’ and ‘norskdidaktikk’), 2) the importance of research in the process of professionalization, 3) academization as part of this development, and 4) educational movements and conflicts involved in this historical process. A common theme in all four histories is the movements, connections, and contradictions between three socio-cultural worlds: the world of the school, the academic world, and the world of teacher training. In a concluding section, I reflect on various aspects of the professionalization processes I have described. I argue for a professionalism in teacher education that combines scientific knowledge and experience-based knowledge, and for research not only on measurable competencies, but quite as much on the ongoing and changing dialogues between subject, teachers and students in the classroom.