In Pursuit of Good Teacher Education: How Can Research Inform Policy?

Abstract

This paper aims to answer the question: how can research inform policy about what good teacher education is and about how it can be implemented? The paper takes up a general and ongoing debate about the relationship between research and practice – here especially educational research and political practice. The questions are motivated by society’s high expectations of applying scientifically produced knowledge to other systems of society and the public. Four different strategies, which all attempt to explain the problem of making research results useful for practice, are discussed. Those are the linear pipeline approach, the mode-2 research approach, the boundary work approach, and the structural coupling approach.