This paper is about the professional role of teacher educators in Sweden and Germany. In Sweden and Germany teacher education is an academic professional education and therefore requires a combination of academic research-based knowledge and professional practical skills. The former provides the student teacher with a theoretical knowledge base for a reflexive and critical stance, and the latter prepares the student teacher to gain the expertise to be able to act and cope with work situations in school (Agevall and Olofsson, 2014). A recurrent and fundamental issue in politically driven reforms in teacher education has been to balance these two aspects of teacher education, and this has generated conflicting relationships   that create tensions in the balance between academic knowledge and school practice knowledge in teacher education.   

The aim of this paper is to examine how teacher educators talk about and deal with such tensions and contradictions that arise in the two countries. It is about how the teacher educators’ professional role is shaped, which involves teacher educators’ discretion, autonomy, and authority (cf. Lipsky, 2010).

The teacher educations in the two countries have historical commonalities and similarities, such as separate educational pathways for primary and secondary school teachers and the integration of teacher education as a higher education program (Bejeroth et. al., 2018; Graumann, 2022). In both countries, teacher education has been reformed several times in recent years and has been the focus of change (e.g. KMK, 2004; Regeringskansliet, 2023). At the same time, there are differences both within and between the countries with regard to teacher education and its organisation. In Sweden, teacher education is available at twenty-seven higher education institutions, universities and university colleges, with different programs, courses and specialisations that determine the length of the education (Åstrand, 2024). In Germany, due to the cultural sovereignty of the Länder and for historical reasons, the organization of teacher education shows a high degree of diversification depending on the Land (Germany consist of sixteen Länder), the specific higher education institution and the educational orientation (school type and level) (KMK, 2025).  

The comparison between the countries’ teacher educators’ work-stories is conceptually (Novoa and Yariv-Mashal, 2003; cf. Schriewer and Novoa, 2001), to compare how teacher educators in the two countries talk about and deal with tensions. However, the intention is not to describe or 'improve', but to understand and explain.  

The questions are   

How do tensions from change in balance between academic knowledge and school practice knowledge in teacher education 'attach' to the daily work of teacher educators? 

What are teacher educators' strategies for dealing with these tensions?   

What are the differences and similarities between teacher educators in the two countries in relation to the former tensions?   

Conceptually, the focus of this paper is twofold, firstly it draws on theories of profession and professionalism to analytically discuss the ways of organising work and ideal types with their own logic that require different kinds of knowledge and organisation (Freidson, 2001). Secondly, the paper conceptually deals with an understanding of change as a way of organising work that affects the conditions for the professional role (Evett, 2013, 2009; Noordegraaf, 2020).  

Teacher educators are defined in the study as those who carry out teacher education work in higher education institutions, where the work involves management, organisation, planning and teaching. The study is based on interviews, that is, personal work stories in line with the research questions.   Twenty-eight teacher educators participated in the study, fourteen teacher educators from two universities in Sweden and fourteen teacher educators from two universities in Germany.  The teacher educators in the German universities were all involved in the first phase of teacher education, which is university-based with some practice in schools. Of the fourteen interviewees in Sweden and Germany respectively, seven worked at a more recently established university and seven at an older university.  The semi-structured interviews lasted approximately 45-70 minutes and were recorded. The analysis was carried out in four steps. First, each interview and its associated data were divided into separate files, with relevant segments relating to the teacher educator's work marked during the initial review. This marked data was then reviewed again and specific areas highlighted by the interviewee were mapped separately. The mapped data was then grouped into broad categories, which were further organised into sub-headings. The analysis focused on identifying areas where the interviewee mentioned shifts or contradictions, such as the use of words like 'but', 'then' or 'on the other hand', which may indicate tensions in the work (Cresswell and Cresswell, 2018; Wengraf, 2001).

Interviewed teacher educators in both countries highlight a perceived low status and a widespread lack of understanding of teacher education within academia—even among higher education leadership. It remains an ongoing challenge for teacher education to establish itself as a legitimate part of academia. The analysis identifies several tensions between academic knowledge and school-based practice. Some of these tensions stem from regulations and rules imposed from above—for example, the political decision to introduce teacher education standards in Germany in 2004. These standards are portrayed as having developed their own momentum, gaining ever-greater significance, and consequently reducing opportunities for the open discussion and reflection that teacher educators regard as fundamental to academic work. In the work stories of Swedish teacher educators, there is a recurrent feature that when the balance between academic knowledge and school practice in teacher education changes as a result of reforms, this affects the teacher educator’s experience of being ‘in the right place' or not. That is, academic theoretical knowledge or school-based practice is seen, by the teacher educator, as too dominant in relation to the teacher educator’s understanding of important elements in the education. However, this is not related to the academic rank or position of the teacher educators. Notably, teacher educators in both countries describe how their close relationships with students are affected by increasing administrative and organizational demands, as well as by a growing number of student teachers. Many of these students are unfamiliar with university-level study and therefore require additional time and support through teaching and mentoring. As a result, teacher educators often feel compelled to focus on foundational skills and limit theory and discussion early in the training, because students must first learn how to engage in their new roles as university learners.

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