In Sweden Teacher Education (TE) programmes are regulated by the national by the Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100) and additional national examination goals for TE that are more specific and detailed than most other Swedish higher education goals. In addition, each university or university collage must have a programme curriculum for each teacher education programme. These curricula must include the national education goals but also allows for a local focus. In addition to this each course within TE must have a course syllabus. Theses in TE are a significant component of the program. Thesis work allows aspiring teachers to delve deeper into their chosen topic of study, provides an opportunity to explore and contribute to the existing body of knowledge in education (Holmberg, 2006). Throughout the process of completing the thesis, students engage in extensive research, data collection, analysis, and critical thinking to address relevant issues in the field (Råde, 2016; Zackariassson, 2019). By conducting empirical studies or literature reviews students gain valuable insights into teaching profession and practices, curriculum development, educational policies, or other areas of their interest. The thesis work in teacher education not only enhances students' research and analytical skills, it also prepares them to become reflective practitioners who can contribute to the improvement of educational practices and student learning outcomes (Erixon & Erixon Arreman, 2018). Even though thesis work is found advantageous, there has been a discussion among policy makers and researchers in Sweden about the focus and purpose of theses in TE. One orientation has been that theses and thesis work should immerse student teachers with knowledge in education sciences as a basis for the teacher profession (Beach & Bagley, 2013). Another orientation has been that theses should have a connection to teaching and i.e. the vocational dimension of the teaching profession (Karlsudd et al., 2017; Mattsson, 2008; Wernersson & Hansen Orwehag, 2016), while some researchers have highlighted the benefits of integrating these two orientations in relation to thesis work (Erixon & Erixon Arreman, 2018; Råde, 2019). In the 2000s, the quality of theses were seen as a main indicator of the quality of higher education in the governmental evaluations (Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, 2006; Svärd, 2014), which in combination with the increasing prominence of thesis work in TE, contributed to an interest in TE theses in educational research. In recent years the final thesis is not the only quality indicator in these evaluations, as they are combined with self-evaluations by universities; but it is still the case that if final theses have low quality, and if it is not improved in a satisfactory manner the university can lose the right to operate the programme. This gave incentives to TE departments to focus on scientific literacy and research skills in TE during the 2010s, while the vocational dimensions of teacher work were less highlighted in relation to thesis courses (Råde, 2016).

The purpose of this study is to identify orientations of thesis courses in Swedish primary teacher education by an analysis of programme curricula and course syllabi documents.

• What orientations can be identified in 2023 programme curricula and course syllabi in the thesis courses in 18 Swedish primary teacher education programmes track K–3 and 4–6?

The empirical material analysed in this paper consist of programme curricula and course syllabi. Swedish primary teacher education is given at 18 universities or university collages, and they are all included in the empirical material of programme curricula (U1–U18) and course syllabi at the five largest primary teacher education universities in Sweden (U1, U2, U3, U5, U13). The programme curricula (tracks K-3 and 4-6) and course syllabi are public documents, so they were accessible at each university or university collage. We chose programme curricula of Swedish primary teacher education given at 18 universities. A deductive thematic analysis performed made using the four orientations were used to identify to orientations, which knowledge and skills, that was emphasised in the documents (Bergström & Boréus, 2017). Programme curricula covers the entire primary teacher education programme, we selected the parts relating to Independent work 1 and Independent work 2 courses in the document analysis. Course syllabi of final thesis courses (thesis 2) at five universities were analysed as a whole. We chose to analyse course syllabi at five universities; they were chosen because they have large primary teacher education programmes. Concerning the analysis procedure, starting with a holistic reading of the documents we identified key words in each document relating to the orientations and used descriptive statistics to present the results (Börjesson & Nyman, 2023). The key words (table 2) provide a basis for comparisons of differences between the different universities.

The analysis revealed that the Academic orientation was most prominent, 16 programme curricula contained items with an emphasis on subject-matter. This was followed by the Vocational orientation, about half of the curricula (10 of 18) contained items that underline that theses should have a relevance for teacher practice. The Educational science orientation could be identified in a third (6 of 18) of the programme curricula, which emphasised knowledge and skills related to independent research (such as theory and analysis). Few programme curricula (2 of 18) highlighted aspects of the Applying research orientation, such as the ability to find relevant research in relation to a specific problem. However, the in the course syllabi the Educational sciences orientation was most prominent, and the Academic orientation was least prominent. That is, the programme curricula and course syllabi differ in orientation in relation to thesis courses. In this paper presentation we will show the distribution of the orientations and discuss implications for teacher education as well as how future teachers get acquitted with the relevance and use of those for their thesis word. In further research, it would be interested to investigate the role of theory in material used in teacher education courses.

Beach, D., & Bagley, C. (2013). Changing professional discourses in teacher education policy back to towards a training paradigm: A comparative study. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36(4), 379-392. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2013.815162 Börjesson, M., & Nyman, R. (2023). Degree projects in Swedish primary teacher education – a content analysis of didactics and topics. Acta Didactica Norden, 17(1), 19 sider. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.9594