The role of theory in teacher education: reconsidered from a student teacher perspective

With the persistent criticism of teacher education as a backdrop, this article explores the common perception that teacher education is too theoretical. This article takes the view that the student teachers’ assumptions regarding the concept of theory affect how they engage with theory during initial teacher education. Using a qualitative approach, this study examines student teachers’ conceptualizations of the nature and role of theory in teacher education. The results indicate conflicts between student teachers’ assumptions about theory in general and pedagogical theories in particular, and also between a narrow conception of the nature of theory and a more nuanced understanding of the purpose of theory. Student teachers’ encounter with pedagogy as an academic discipline—with a different epistemology than the one they know from their discipline-specific studies—seems to cause considerable struggle that often ends in a devaluation and denigration of theory in teacher education. The implications of these findings for teacher education are discussed.