General introduction

Research shows that teachers' work is complex and that professional teachers need to act both as knowledgeable and reflective practitioners. Teacher education shall prepare for such a profession (Korthagen, Loughran & Lunenberg, 2005; Achtenhagen & Grubb, 2001). However, teacher education has a complex mandate; it has a purpose outside itself in its preparation for work in another institutional setting, in practical work at school. International research shows that learning at college mostly is about being able to manage theoretical and ideological discussions, while in their practicum the matter of concern is to be able to deal with practical situations (Eraut, 2004, Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003), Shall the teacher students during their education be able to integrate the theoretical and practical knowledge they are introduced to and develop as the knowledgeable and reflective practitioners, college and schools have to agree upon the premises for a coherent teacher qualification, share their views and cooperate in the making of the teacher qualification (Bullough jr. 2005, Koster, Korthagen & Wubbels,1998; Feiman-Nemser, Parker & Zeichner, 1992, Loughran, 2006). In Norway teacher education deals with the same challenges (NOKUT, 2006) as internationally. Data from Norwegian teacher mentors and college teachers will be compared to what international data shows. In Norway new national guidelines for elementary schools have been in use since 2010 (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2010). Like in many other countries, one of the main challenges in teacher education in Norway is described to be to reduce the gap between theory and practice. The National Guidelines for Differentiated Primary and Lower Secondary Teacher Education Programs for Years 1–7 and Years 5–10 (2011) point out cooperation between the university college teacher educators and teacher mentors in school as central to realizing these intentions. Internationally there have been discussions about what is necessary to create a meaningful and coherent teacher education (Feiman-Nemser, 1998; Zeichner, 2004; Grossmann et al., 2008; Hammerness, 2012). However, it seems to be a lack of knowledge about how teacher mentors are prepared to deal with their student teachers and what influence their choices and how they see their role as teacher educators (Korthagen, Loughran & Lunenberg, 2005; Gee, 2000-2001). Our research questions are:

• What kinds of knowledge and skills do teacher mentors regard as necessary to do their job?
• Do teacher mentors regard it to be a conflict in being both a school teacher and teacher educator, if so, what are the dilemmas?
• What kind of information, support and education have teacher mentors been offered from the colleges’ teacher education, and do they regard these offers as relevant for their job as teacher mentors?
• What do teacher mentors regard as a relevant collaborative relationship with the teacher educators at college?

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