Theory and Practice: two fundamental categories in the philosophy of teacher education

Taking Swedish teacher education as its point of departure, two related problems are discussed in the article. (1) Practice is often understood to be completely immersed in itself. Consequently, there arises the problem if and how it can get out of this enclosedness and get some perspective on itself. Three ways of introducing distance into practice are proposed, and, thereby, of establishing knowledge about practice, i.e. self‐reflection, dialogue and scientific research. (2) Sometimes theory and practice are regarded as absolutely different and incompatible. According to this kind of dualism it is not possible to integrate any kind of theoretical knowledge into teachers professional actions. By showing how distance can be eliminated from theory and transformed into practical skill, it is argued that this dualism is not maintainable.