It is expected that higher education institutions organise initial teacher education (ITE) to prepare future teachers for the complexity they will face in their day-to-day work and to develop curricular practices that positively include the diversity of characteristics and learning styles of the students they work with (Leite & Sousa-Pereira, 2023; Sousa-Pereira, Leite, & Marinho, 2023). At the same time, since it is difficult to predict all the different situations that future teachers will encounter, it is recognised that preparing teachers to investigate their curricular practices is essential. Teachers who investigate the effects of their pedagogical work methods produce knowledge that can support future improvement processes (Grossman & McDonald, 2008; Obwegeser & Papadopoulos, 2016; Nóvoa, 2019; Böttcher-Oschmann et al., 2021; McCartney et al., 2018; Agud & Ion, 2019; Melo et al., 2022).
In line with this perspective, it is considered that higher education, to fulfil its mission, must train students based on a strong teaching-research relationship. Some authors (Griffiths, 2004; Healey, 2005; Healey & Jenkins, 2006; Wood, 2009; Walkington, 2015; Afdal & Spernes, 2018) mention that this relationship is inseparable and that it is the only way to fulfil higher education's mission of producing new knowledge. Based on these ideas, a study was developed to identify the perspectives of higher education professors who teach learner-teachers about the importance of teaching with research and the conditions they have to follow.
The study answers the following questions: How important is the teaching-research relationship in ITE? How does this relationship occur in ITE? What difficulties and possibilities exist in teaching through research?
Theoretically, the study was based on Healey's (2005) typology of relationships between teaching and research. This author refers to the existence of four possibilities. The first possibility, “research-led teaching”, occurs when professors present research that others have produced, in which the students are mere recipients of the knowledge transmitted to them. The second possible relationship, “research-oriented teaching”, exists when professors teach students about research methodologies. The third type of relationship, “research-tutored”, is when students are organised in small groups and, under the supervision of the professor, acting as a tutor, have the opportunity to carry out research and write articles systematising research results that students have conducted.
Regarding the fourth possibility proposed by Healey (2005), called “research-based teaching”, students also assume the role of researchers by defining research questions, debating and planning procedures, collecting data, and interpreting them according to the frameworks they are searching for. It is a teaching-research relationship based on strong interactions between professors and students, characterised by the horizontality that accompanies the idea of a collective researcher because it recognises and accepts that both professors and students can teach and learn.
These four types of teaching-research relationships support strategic options of greater or lesser student participation. The teaching-research relationship is included in what Healey (2005) calls research-based teaching when focused on student participation and research. In this procedure, professors and students are collectively and committedly involved in teaching and learning through the research they carry out through problematisation, data collection and interpretation, and sharing and comparing points of view.
It is relevant to mention that Healey and Jenkins (2006) considered that “often the most effective learning experiences involve a combination of all four approaches”. However, “the emphasis should be placed on the student-cantered approaches in the top half” (p. 48).

In Portugal, since 2007, and related to the Bologna Process, teachers' initial education has been obtained with a master’s degree. To access the master’s degrees that qualify teachers for the 7th to the 12th school year, candidates must have completed graduation (first Bologna cycle with three years), in which students acquire knowledge focused on a unique content (mathematics, biology, etc.). Therefore, in this case, it is only during the master’s degree that learner-teachers come into contact with professional situations related to school education and teaching practice. For a master’s that prepares them for teaching in the first six years of schooling, candidates must have completed a degree whose curricular plan already includes some contact with schools and some initiation into teaching practice. From an empirical point of view, the study followed a qualitative interpretation (Creswell & Creswell, 2018), collecting data through an internet interview via email with higher education professors responsible for the master's programmes that train future teachers in Portugal. The interview was organised around the research questions mentioned above: How important is the teaching-research relationship in ITE? How does this relationship occur in ITE? What difficulties and possibilities exist in teaching through research? The study involved 56 professors interviewed from 13 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal - six universities and seven polytechnics - out of 24 that in 2023 provide ITE in Portugal. The selection of participants was based on intentional convenience sampling, prioritising HEIs that have the most significant influence on ITE. For data collection, course coordinators and professors who teach the subjects with the highest ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) load at each institution were selected. All of them were informed that the overall data and institution names to which they belong would be anonymised. The answers given were submitted to content analysis supported by Healey’s (2005) typology of the teaching-research relationship: research-led teaching, research-oriented teaching, research-tutored, and research-based teaching. To confirm the critical validation (Boa et al., 2018) of the interview protocol, a "jury agreement" method was applied. This involved soliciting evaluations from two academics with pertinent expertise and experience in the subject of the study.

The study's findings highlight the significance of the relationship between teaching and research in ITE. Most interviewees agreed on its importance, though they presented different interpretations to justify it. The importance of integrating teaching with research pointed to reasons that span all four dimensions of the model proposed by Healey (2005), thus encompassing all four (Healey & Jenkins, 2006). Even though the most commonly mentioned was “research-oriented teaching”, followed by “research-guided”, “research-led”, and finally, “research-based teaching”. However, the study also uncovered that despite acknowledging the importance of this relationship between teaching and research, there are multiple challenges to its practical implementation in ITE. These include: i) difficulties related to the working conditions of higher education professors to carry out teaching and research, as well as the initial teacher training curriculum; ii) challenges associated with professional teaching cultures, as well as the pedagogical perspectives of higher education professors; iii) obstacles arising from the students (learner-teachers) themselves, who prefer more direct teaching, namely because they have a traditional view of the teaching profession, or because they haven't mastered the essential competencies for more complex and less structured work. Nevertheless, the most frequently mentioned difficulties concern the organisational and professional cultures, entrenched in a schizophrenic burden of bureaucratic tasks in administrative responses, taking away quality time dedicated to the process of teaching with research, which corroborates previous studies (e.g., Barnett, 2008; Fanny Chan Fong Yee, 2014; Griffiths, 2004; Hedges, 2010; Hughes, 2005; Karagiannis, 2009) that highlighted their influence on the structuring of integrated teaching and research.

Agud, I., & Ion, G. (2019). Research-based learning in initial teacher education in Catalonia. CEPS Journal, 9(2), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.564 Böttcher-Oschmann, F., Ophoff, J., & Thiel, F. (2021). Preparing teacher training students for evidence-based practice promoting students’ research competencies in research-learning projects. Frontiers in Education, 642107. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.642107 Grossman, P., & McDonald, M. (2008). Back to the future: Directions for research in teaching and teacher education. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1), 184-205. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831207312906 Healey, M. (2005). Linking research and teaching: Exploring disciplinary spaces and the role of inquiry-based learning. In R. Barnett (Ed.), Reshaping the university: New relationships between research, scholarship and teaching, 67–78. McGraw Hill/Open University Press Healey, M., & Jenkins, A. (2006). Strengthening the teaching-research linkage in undergraduate courses and programs. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 107, 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.244 Leite, C. (2019). Teaching, learning and research – An analysis of the academic and political agenda. In M. H. Pedrosa-de-Jesus & D. M. Watts, (Eds.), Academic growth in higher education: questions and answers, 19-30. Brill Sense. Leite, C., Fernandes, P., & Sousa-Pereira, F. (2017). Post-Bologna policies for teacher education in Portugal: tensions in building professional identities. Profesorado. Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado, 21(1), 181-201. McCartney, E., Marwick, H., Hendry, G., & Ferguson, E. (2018). Eliciting student teacher’s views on educational research to support practice in the modern diverse classroom: A workshop approach. Higher Education Pedagogies, 3(1), 342–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2018.1498748 Nóvoa, A. (2019). Entre a formação e a profissão: Ensaio sobre o modo como nos tornamos professores [Between training and profession: Essay on how we become teachers]. Currículo sem Fronteiras, 19(1), 198-208. Obwegeser, N., & Papadopoulos, P. (2016). Integrating research and teaching in the IS classroom: Benefits for teachers and students. Journal of Information Systems Education, 27(4), 249–258. https://bit.ly/3hHY80x Pereira-Sousa, F., Leite, C. & Marinho, P. (2023). A socialização com a profissão na formação inicial de professores em Portugal, Revista de Formación del Profesorado, 98 (37.3), 283-302, https://doi.org/10.47553/rifop.v98i37.3.97024 Walkington, H. (2015). Students as researchers: Supporting undergraduate research in the disciplines in higher education. The Higher Education Academy. https:// bit.ly/3twEabJ Willcoxson, L., Manning, M., Johnston, N., & Gething, K. (2011). Enhancing the research-teaching nexus: Building teaching-based research from research-based teaching. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(1), 1–10. Wood, D. (2009). Challenges to strengthening the teaching and research nexus in the first-year undergraduate curriculum. The International Journal of Learning, 15(12), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9494/CGP/v15i12/46051