This presentation draws out what is understood as ‘research-based’ and ‘proven experiences’/evidence in initial and continuing teacher professional learning in three national contexts. We reveal how these discourses are evident in multiple ways in key national policies, and particularly how they play out in practice. These notions are expressed as ‘research and development’ in Norway, and through the concept of ‘student-active-research’ (Norwegian Government, 2012/3). Student involvement in research and development (R&D) activities are encouraged as an integral part of all Norwegian study programs from undergraduate to more advanced levels. To make sense of some of the complexities and possibilities for how this policy has played out in ITE, we draw on an empirical case from Norway; a five-year Master’s level pilot program for primary and lower secondary school teachers at the University of Tromsø. Similarly, in Sweden, legislation requires that education be grounded in research- and evidence-based approaches: “Education shall rest on scientific ground and proven experience” (SFS 2010:800, chapter 1 §5). Teachers are expected to come up with research-informed approaches/solutions to practical problems in schooling settings, and to engage their colleagues in their schools around these initiatives. However, they struggle to do this. This presentation will involve an analysis of a specific action research initiative, involving school-university partnerships in municipalities in the West Coast of Sweden as an example of an alternative to these more generic conceptions of research-informed approaches/solutions to practical problems, even as this is challenging work (Rönnerman & Olin, 2014). In the Netherlands, policy also explicitly reflects this emphasis upon research-informed, evidence-based approaches (Bussemaker & Dekker, 2016; Onderwijsraad, 2006). High quality and excellence are keywords, but autonomy and professional space for teachers are also deemed necessary to effect such outcomes. However, these processes are also in contest with increased accountability concerns (OECD, 2016). We conclude the presentation with an example of an initial teacher education program in the Netherlands as an alternative to more accountability-oriented approaches, specifically how student teachers learn to conduct participatory action research into their own practice. The result of these reforms are different and contrasting stories, reflecting more social-democratic and liberatory approaches on one hand, but also how these possibilities are always in tension with more neo-liberal and scientistic evidence-based research and practice approaches on the other. The cases reveal how science can disempower the practicing teacher, but also how it might liberate them (Eilertsen & Jakhelln, 2014).

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