My study is part of a larger project called BRIDGES which aim is to develop research- based interdisciplinary didactics in teacher education, and to improve teacher education with the support of and in collaboration with the end users. The focus of interdisciplinary didactics is closely related to the renewal of the Norwegian national curriculum (2017 – 2020) and the introduction of the three crosscutting themes public health and life skills, democracy and citizenship, and sustainable development. The implementation of the crosscutting themes into the curricula has prompted an interest for and actualized interdisciplinarity in both teacher education and schools. Interdisciplinary work is the common denominator in BRIDGES, and the research conducted is either focusing especially on one of the three crosscutting themes or interdisciplinarity as an objective to ensure better coherence within and between school subjects or disciplines in teacher education. In my PhD-project, I facilitate a collaborating space, that is this study’s main objective. In 2017, a national initiative for decentralized competence development in schools was implemented, emphasising partnership and locally based initiatives as pivotal means to target learning and development in schools. The partnership entails an equal and mutually binding collaboration, departing from research-based, practice-oriented, and relevant measures (Udir, 2022) to facilitate processes that improve practices. The overall aim is to improve practices within teacher education and collaboration between schools and teacher education for mutual exchange of knowledge, experiences and worldviews, and to obtain a deeper understanding of how practices develop. The overarching research question for my study is how can collaboration between teacher education and the field of practice contribute to learning and strengthening practice for teacher educators and schoolteachers? I the project I investigate collaboration both on a horizontal and vertical level, looking at collaboration within teacher education and between teacher education and schools. In addition, I explore how both teacher educators and schoolteachers understands the concept interdisciplinarity in teaching and learning.

The project is designed as a case study, where I as a teacher educator collaborate with two other teacher educators and three schools in one Norwegian municipality throughout one school year. Interdisciplinarity is targeted as a focus area the municipality and its schools wish to address and further develop. The overall strategy, or design for the partnership is decided by the school owner (municipality) together with the administrative project leader at the university. In this case, the design is a so called “competence package” consisting of eight different modules targeting interdisciplinarity in different ways. We as the teacher educators create the content and tasks for the different modules, and the school principals are responsible for initiating and leading the teachers’ work and development processes locally. The competence package is built around a methodology focusing on individual and collective reflections on different parts of the curriculum, and on introducing new elements into existing practice and already prepared work in classroom (Penuel et al., 2007, Kennedy, 2016). Authentic learning implies that initiatives targeting competence development in schools should enable teachers to be agents in their own development process. The intention of the reflections is hence to facilitate critical discussions to challenge existing practices and enable the teachers to find ways to ask new questions related to their fundamental values and theories of action (Robinson, 2018).  

Based on activity theory and the theory of expansive learning, I explore how this partnership progresses and takes form, by investigating what contradictions occur in the collaboration, and how they are addressed and solved (Engeström & Sannino, 2010). The focus is both directed towards collaboration within teacher education, and between teacher education and schools. Also, the schoolteachers work with and understanding of interdisciplinarity in teaching is addressed in the project, but for this Ignite-Talk I put emphasis on the aspect of collaboration. An overall purpose of the partnership approach in the competence development model is to strengthen research-informed practice in schools, and to create equality through active and co-creative participation between both partners (Hartberg & Havn, 2022). So far, we have been cooperating closely within the teacher education but more or less indirectly with the schools. It is questionable whether we will be able to collaborate more directly with the schoolteachers, but we are planning to conduct observation of the work on one of the modules at the schools. Data will mainly be produced (Aase & Fossåskaret, 2014) on transcripts of semi-structured interviews with project leader, school owner, school principals, schoolteachers and teacher educators, recordings of workshops between teacher educators while developing the content of the competence package, schoolteachers’ logs, and minutes from different meetings. In addition, every second module is followed up with a questionnaire for the teachers, to trace their experiences with and evolving understanding of interdisciplinarity.

The design of the competence package started in the beginning of spring 2022, and the schools started their work in September/October 2022. If everything goes according to plan, the competence package will be completed in May/Jun 2023. The preliminary findings of the research indicates that participation in partnership through the decentralized competence development initiative enhances learning and development within teacher education, and within schools. Previous research correlates with preliminary findings in this project in that learning in partnerships between research and practice becomes evident when there are changes in the collective knowledge and in the routines of organizations that participate in the partnerships (Farrell et al., 2022). A central element of the competence package is relevance for practice, something that forces us as teacher educators to “think like schoolteachers” and especially be sensitive to their work context when translating theoretical knowledge into concrete tasks. In addition, cocreation between teacher educators in developing the competence package has established an essential space for collaboration and reflection that did not exist before, creating new bridges between disciplines and teacher educators. Likewise, the schools express that participating in the decentralized initiative and working with the competence package facilitate cocreation of the schools’ collective competence. It is experienced both as an obligation and driving force for professionalisation of practice. As data production at the moment is in its initial phases at the point being, I expect to have further findings and analysis to share and explore for the conference in August.

Aase, T. H. & Fossåskaret, E. (2014). Skapte virkeligheter: Om produksjon og tolkning av kvalitative data (2. utg.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget Farrell, C. C., Penuel, W. R., Allen, A., Anderson, R. E., Bohannon, A. X., Couburn, C. E. og Brown, S. L. (2022). Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice: A Framework for Understanding Research–Practice Partnerships. Educational Researcher, 51(3), 197–208. Hartberg, E. og Havn, H. (2022). Roller og samskaping i skoleutvikling. I Helstad, K. og Mausethagen, S. (red). Skoleutvikling i forskning, politikk og praksis. Cappelen Damm akademisk. Kennedy, M. M. (2016). How does professional development improve teaching? Review of educational research, 86(4), 945–980. Penuel, W. R., Fishman, B. J., Yamaguchi, R., Gallagher, R. og Gallagher, L. P. (2007). What Makes Professional Development Effective? Strategies that Foster Curriculum Implementation. American Educational Research Journal, 44 (4), 921–958. Udir. (2022). Tilskuddsordning for lokal kompetanseutvikling i barnehage og grunnopplæring. https://www.udir.no/kvalitet-og-kompetanse/lokal-kompetanseutvikling/tilskuddsordningene-for-lokal-kompetanseutvikling-i-barnehage-og-grunnopplaring/#a183012 Robinson, V. (2018). Færre endringer – mer utvikling. Cappelen Damm Akademisk