A variety of methods were used to collect and analyse the data produced. A form of discourse analysis, as well as a survey of research literature, was used to identify policy discourses connected with the Bologna process. At the local micro level, local documentation as well as teacher talk in planning meetings were analysed to throw light on how the Bologna process was implemented locally.

A number of discourses were found in policy documents; including the need to modernize higher education and to move towards a more student centred approach to learning. The analysis made locally showed that these discourses were mediated by a regulative discourse portraying teachers as role models who have the task of passing on knowledge that is essential for the students to obtain before entering the profession. Instead of challenging the pedagogic identities for teachers and students, the introduction of learning outcomes acted to strengthen the fundamental vertical relations between teachers and students, cementing and confirming the level of control that teachers had over all aspects of the curriculum. Changes made in connection with the introduction of learning outcomes had a minimal influence on practice and were contested by some teacher educators. Teacher educators resisted and mediated the changes made by continuing to use their traditional practices.The research reiterates the point that the implementation of policy reforms is a complex process and that policy messages are re-interpreted and recontextualised at various points of the implementation process. While the importance of alternative local traditions and cultures appears to have been underplayed in policy documents, this research draws attention to the need to appreciate practitioner responses to the changes made in the local environment, and the need to understand how disciplinary cultures and discourses can act as a mediating factor on how change processes are interpreted and carried out.