Final theses in teacher education: constructing epistemic relations between thesis work and student teachers’ professional practice

The aim of this article is to explore the relations constructed between final thesis work and student teachers' future professional practice. Despite variations in scope and format, the final thesis is an essential part of prospective teachers' educational trajectories in many countries. Although previous studies have revealed students' perceived relevance of thesis work, little is known about how specific aspects of thesis work relate to student teachers' future practice. Using the lens of epistemic relations, interviews with Norwegian teachers, students, educators, and program leaders from three teacher education programs were analyzed. The findings reveal that final thesis work serves four main purposes and that epistemic relations are created between various processual and material dimensions of thesis work and students' future practice. These findings suggest that process-oriented perspectives of thesis work should not be overlooked when discussing its value and how to establish interconnections between theses and professional practice.