The problem of theory and practice is classic theme in philosophy and none the least in teacher education research. Jorgensen (2005) constructs four philosophical models of relations between theory and practice. Schön (1987), Grossmann (2008), Korthagen & Kessels (1999) and Hammerness (2006) analyzes empirical how coherence between coursework and practice work can bridge this so called gap. But neither perspective relates the philosophical, cultural and subjective experienced perspectives of how the knowledge forms of the teacher education program are cultural embedded and bodily anchored even though students exchanges from different sites practicing varieties of knowledge forms by being accustomed to the changing intentionalities of coursework and practice work. On top of this, the teacher education in Denmark is as designated to the teacher profession as towards studies for a master’s degree which constitutes what I call the teacher education program problematique (Knudsen 2012). This identifying and structuring question includes different perspectives on what constitutes a good teacher education program, a good student, a good teacher.

In a theoretical framework of Aristotle (1999), Højrup (2003) and Merleau-Ponty (2000, 2002) I analyze how different knowledge forms are cultural embedded in life modes and how they are bodily anchored in coursework and practice work. This framework is ambiguous (Knudsen 2011, Fotí 1998) but conjoins as Aristotle’s knowledge forms are viewed as bodily dispositions, hexis, (Eikeland 2008) and Højrup’s cultural theory of life modes are developed out of this insight (Højrup 2003) and as Merleau-Ponty notion of the intentional arch fundamentally describes how knowledge is interwoven with cultural milieus (Zahavi & Gallagher 2008).

Inspired by Jorgensen (2005) I construct an analytical model, the topos and logos model, for the methodological design of a qualitative case and analyzing data. The model illustrates how the students shift between placement sites and the teaching site (topos), and that the teacher education program distinguishes between theory and practice (logos). On this background I analyze what forms of knowledge are intended and being practiced at the sites of the coursework and practice work, how these are framed by cultural structures, and how these knowledge forms are to be understood as bodily anchored (Casey 2009). This implies a dialectical theoretical background for the analysis of theory and practice which states that theory and practice cannot be identified with respectively the placement site and the teaching site, but that theory and practice are interrelated (Jorgensen 2005). Hereby it becomes especially interesting to analyze the knowledge forms of the teacher education program as forms of knowledge that crosses over today’s gap between theory and practice. This point of departure gives an opportunity to analyze how the relations between theory and practice are being perceived differently on institutional, individual, and positional levels in the teacher education program as I ask: How are we to understand the embodied forms of knowledge that are intended and practiced in the students shifting between placement site and teaching site in relation to the placement period and writing their Bachelor thesis in the teacher education program?

Aristoteles (1999). Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis/Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company Inc. Casey, E. S. (2009). Getting Back into Place. Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place-World. Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Eikeland, O. (2008). The Ways of Aristotle: Aristotelian Phrónêsis, Aristotelian Philosophy of Dialogue, and Action Research. Bern, Peter Lang. Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). "Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research." Qualitative Inquiry 12(2): 27. Fog, J. (2004). Med samtalen som udgangspunkt. Det kvalitative forskningsinterview. København, Akademisk Forlag. Fóti, V. M. (1998). Merleau-Pontys Vertical Genesis and the Aristotelian Powers of the Soul. Phenomenology: Japanese and American. B. Hopkins. Norwell, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Grossman, P., K. Hammerness, et al. (2008). "Constructing Coherence: Structural Predictors of Perceptions of Coherence in NYC Teachers Education Programs." Journal of Teacher Education(59): 15. Højrup, T. (2003). State, Culture and Life-Modes. The Foundations of Life-Mode Analysis. Hants, Ashgate Publishing Limited Hammerness, K. (2006). "From coherence in theory to coherence in practice." Teachers College Record 108 (7): 25. Jorgensen, E. R. (2005). "Four Philosophical Models of the Relationship Between Theory and Practice." Philosophy of Music Education Review 13(no. 1 ). Knudsen, L. E. D. (2012). Teori og praksis i læreruddannelsen – kundskabsformer, kultur og kropslighed. Ph.d. afhandling. Aarhus Universitet, Faculty of Arts (“Theory and practice in the teacher education programme – knowledge forms, culture and embodiment”. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Aarhus. Faculty of Arts)