Universities and colleges are expected to develop systems to value good teachers, promote their academic careers and raise the status of education (Ministry of Education, 2016). It is emphasized that  the students become part of the collaboration, where it becomes a shared responsibility to seek ways to improve, by working together and thereby strengthening the quality work in the education sector (Ministry of Education, 2016). Quality in teacher education (TE) is characterized by a clear vision of good teaching, a clear connection between theory and practice and a practice that gives the opportunity to test and evaluate teaching (Hammernes & Klette, 2015). Several studies have been done on teacher collaboration in TE (Stoll & Louis, 2007), but so far there is little research examining the importance of teacher collaboration and professional learning among teacher educators. The purpose of this paper is to examine how collaboration between teacher educators takes place in TE in Norway, with the intention of studying teacher collaboration as an indicator of quality in TE programs. The paper is a part of a PhD-project, that seeks to develop knowledge about how different professional learning communities among teachers in TE contexts may contribute to increased quality of teacher educators` teaching work. The research question is: In what ways mayprofessional learning communities among teachers potentially have an impact on quality work in teacher education, and in higher education more broadly?

The paper will explore the purpose and possibilities of strengthening professional learning in TE. Research in schools indicate that learning in professional communities gives individuals, groups, the whole organization, and the school system the opportunity to be involved in and influence learning over time (Aas, 2021), but professional learning can hardly be developed in a school without support from leaders at all levels. In today's debate about educational leadership and school development, the term professional learning is one of many concepts used to capture the distinctiveness of the school's collegial community (Aas, 2013). There seems to be broad international agreement that the term professional learning includes a group of people who work within a collective enterprise and who critically examine their own practice through systematic processes that deal with learning and development (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, & Thomas, 2006). Higher education institutions are characterized by self-governing departments, a strong subject orientation and identity among teachers, a strong degree of autonomy among teachers and a weak tradition of collaboration (Huffman et al., 2016; Stoll & Louis, 2007). Studies from upper secondary schools, show that it can be extra difficult to establish professional learning communities in these institutions, but that it can be possible to develop and organize collaborative arenas for teachers if school leaders support the work, and if the teachers, over time, have good conditions for knowledge development (Helstad, 2013).

The Norwegian strategy plan Teacher education 2025 – National strategy for quality and cooperation in teacher education (Ministry of Education, 2017), refers to research showing that more systematic collaboration between teachers in teacher education, and teachers with updated practical experience gives positive results. The students' experience of relevance and coherence in the education is important for them to be able to acquire knowledge and skills (Smeby and Heggen, 2012). The knowledge base we have about quality in higher education, and about teacher education more specifically, indicates that we need more knowledge about the importance of, and organization for collaboration between teacher educators. So far, development of professional learning communities has been highly described in schools, whereas professional learning among teacher educators needs to be further explored.

The study underlying this paper has a qualitative exploratory design with an inductive methodological approach (Befring, 2015) where descriptions, interpretations of connections and exploration of empirical evidence, both from field studies and documents, form the basis for the research design. The study uses a field study as a method, where interviews and observation of practice in three selected teacher education institutions create the case studies. The aim is to describe and understand different practices related to teacher educators' collaboration within different teacher education programs. The qualitative and multidimensional research design will be a suitable starting point as I will study how teacher collaboration takes place internally in three teacher education contexts, in which both universities and colleges are spread geographically and in terms of size in Norway. The study will include document analysis, interviews and observation of conversations and meetings between teacher educators. The purpose is to gather empirical evidence related to teacher collaboration and the development of professional learning communities in three selected institutions. In the study, I will observe several forms of collaboration between teachers, and I will conduct group interviews with teachers at each institution, as well as interviews with heads of department at these institutions. Through the interviews, I will gain knowledge about how teachers collaborate, and thus trace possible indicators of quality in teacher education. In addition to observations and interviews with teacher educators and their heads of department, I will carry out document analysis where I analyse various management documents, such as framework plans for teacher education and the institutions' own plans. Such documents set guidelines for how universities and colleges work when it comes to teaching and follow-up of students, which in turn will affect how teacher educators collaborate. Findings from data collection and analysis of the various methods will have the potential to say something about how teacher educators collaborate in professional learning communities to strengthen the quality in teacher education.

I expect to encounter differences and challenges related to professional learning communities in teacher higher education. With an organization that traditionally has been characterized by a high degree of autonomy and privatization (Huffman et al., 2016; Stoll & Louis, 2007), I assume to find that the professional learning communities are differently organized within the different subject departments in teacher education, and that it is somewhat random when and how collaboration between teacher educators is carried out. I also assume that there are big differences in how the leaders have facilitated professional learning communities in the organisation, and what influence the existing culture of the various institutions affects the possibilities for establish arenas for collaboration. Possible implications of the study will point to partnerships between TE and schools to strengthen learning conditions in TE, as well as learning from each other practices. Although this is not the main focus of this study, I imagine that collaboration between teacher education and teacher training (field of practice) will prove to be a good arena for established learning communities, which may have implications for further studies.

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