In Sweden, the content and the assignment of the teacher education have been scrutinized since the latest efforts to strengthen the teacher profession were made through reforms in 2001 and in 2011 (The Swedish Government Bill 2009/10:89). This reforms have been seen as ways to reverse the trend of negative results in the schools’ PISA-tests, as well as to endorse the status of the teacher profession in a more general way. Internationally it is said that the “quality” of the teachers has an important impact on pupils’ success in school (Darling-Hammond, Bransford, & LePage, 2007).

The content of teacher education programmes is regulated in the system of qualifications (i.e. Higher Education Ordinance 1993:100, appendix 2). The different qualifications from the latest reform are also connected to a teacher's certificate, promulgated by the Swedish National Agency for Education, which states ‘in which types of school, which subjects and which years he or she is qualified to teach’. How to organize the content of the teacher education is a matter often discussed; it shifts between universities and can differ in emphasis concerning the content.

We will discuss, out from focus group-interviews made in one specific university in Sweden, how a number of student teachers are experiencing their meeting with the chosen education. Our concern is to present and discuss how new teacher students are experiencing and reason about their first courses in terms of challenges to master. We want to shed light on how they face the meeting with the academy and how they see that the introductory courses relate to the teacher profession.

In our analysis of the novice teacher students’ statements we draw on enculturation. The concept describes how people become full participants in various practices (Roth et al, 2005). Different pedagogical practices create opportunities to acquire knowledge, norms and values embedded in the contexts. Through participation and engagement in teaching and educational activities the students get the opportunity to be enculturated into different practices both at campus and in the vocational training. To become competent in these practices, the new students need to appropriate the rules and tools that are the core for managing the practice in an acceptable way (Lave & Wenger 1991).

We consider in our study a certain teacher education, as a specific learning practice to which the students are supposed to enculture to be able to be fully participant and skilled. To be enculturated in teacher education is to acquire strategies to create knowledge, to practice intellectual and physical tools together with other students, lecturers and teachers/preschool teachers. Students are expected to interpret and understand the special rules enclosed in academic studies and teacher's duties. To understand why students may have difficulties in e.g. implementing tasks it is valuable for lectures to study the experiences students need to use the tools as expected. For those lacking the experience of the tools, the tasks seem incomprehensible.

 Studies of educational content, in curriculum theoretical context, show that learning is not just about what is written in the curriculum and official documents. It is also about the content of teaching in terms of the lived, realized or experienced curriculum. This is described as aspects of the concept of the hidden curriculum (Jackson, 1968/1990). Jackson says that the hidden curriculum is about norms and values that are implicit, and students must learn to handle them to get through school in a satisfactory manner. The hidden curriculum is primarily related to things students learn, not related to the subject content e.g. waiting, talking and writing in certain manners, and to do things that are perceived as meaningless.

Darling-Hammond, L., Bransford, J., and LePage, P. (2007). Introduction. In Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, National Academy of Education. (pp. 1-39) The Higher Education Ordinance [Högskoleförordning] 1993:100. Jackson, P. (1968/1990). Life in classrooms. New York/London: Teachers College Press. Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate, peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Marton, F. (2015). Necessary conditions of learning. London, UK: Routledge. Roth, M.W., Hwang, S.W., Goulart, M.I.M., and Lee, J.Y. (2005). Participation, learning and identity. Dialectial perspectives. Berlin: Lehmans Media. The Swedish Government bill 2009/10:89. Bäst i klassen – en ny lärarutbildning. [Best in the class – a new teacher education]. The Swedish National Agency for Education, Certification of teachers and preschool teachers. http://www.skolverket.se/om-skolverket/andra-sprak-och-lattlast/in-english/teacher-certification