This paper focuses on how teacher education can prepare for high quality professional practice by exploring how school based teacher educators, here called mentors, perceive their role in promoting integration between practice and theory. The study is conducted among mentors in secondary school in Norway to develop a deeper understanding of mentors’ role in teacher education. Teachers are constantly faced with new and unexpected situations. Acting professionally they need to make their own decisions informed by practical and theoretical knowledge (Kvernbekk, 2012). In Norway as well as in other countries a common criticism in teacher education is a perceived gap between practice teaching (knowing how) and the university coursework (knowing that) (Korthagen, 2010, Kvernbekk, 2012). A recent report in Norway found that student teachers value field work higher than the teaching at campus and that they miss a clear connection between the two (Finne et al., 2014). In the current study we wanted to see teacher education from the mentors’ perspective. The study is part of a larger project: “Academic Tribes and their Territories in Teacher Education”, initiated by Jean Murray. The project explores teacher educators’ role seen from their own and student teachers’ perspective in three countries. For the purpose of this study we build on semi-structured interviews with 20 Norwegian mentors. They were asked about their role as teacher educators, about how they judged the importance of experiences and of research for teacher educators, and how they understood their own role compared with the role of university based teacher educators. The data was thematically coded through a moderation process using an interpretative approach (Hatch, 2002). The work is still in progress, but some preliminary findings have emerged. Some mentors saw theory as an important part of teacher education while others downgraded theory and saw it as crucial that student teachers develop practical skills. Some looked upon themselves as teacher educators, others almost as being opposed to university based teacher educators. The different views seem to depend on the mentors’ educational background, for example if they were educated mentors, and if they have had an opportunity to develop a close relationship to the university. In the conclusion we will suggest some implications of the study. Our intention is to develop the paper for publication in an international journal.

Finne, H., Mordal, S., & Stene, T.M. (2014). Oppfatninger av studiekvalitet i lærerutdanningene 2013. Trondheim: SINTEF-rapport Hatch, A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. State University of New York Press, New York. Korthagen, F. (2010). How teacher education can make a difference. Journal of Education for Teaching, 36(4), 407-423. Kvernbekk, T. (2012). Argumentation in Theory and Practice: Gap or Equilibrium? Informal Logic, 32(3), 288-305.