This thesis explores in what ways teacher students make sense of conceptual tools when working with the topic diversity on campus and in internship in school during a one year teacher education program at the University of Oslo.
The research draws on sociocultural theories, and a dialogical perspective. An analysis of dialogical interactions in both contexts is conducted. The overall aim is to study what characterizes the learning processes in the two different contexts, and more specifically to examine how students work with the tools and resources available to them.
The findings show the interdependence between the participants, the object (what is talked about) and the sociocultural context. On the basis of this the sense-making processes in the two contexts are revealed as distant units. In the study this is shown through different ways of talking, the ways different topics are made relevant in the situation, and through the different resources made available. Furthermore, the findings show that it is difficult to transform knowledge appropriated on campus into reflections about teaching in schools. This is due to the rigid and nontransparent borders between the two learning contexts.
This thesis is a contribution to studies on teacher students’ learning processes in and between learning contexts, especially when it comes to discussions related to the "theory-practice" dilemma in teacher education.
This work was conducted at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, the Faculty of Education, University of Oslo