Teacher educators and student teachers involved in professional inquiry in teacher education: The effect on professional agency and practices of participation

The paper presents research from a Danish large-scale initiative: ‘Teacher education as a laboratory for developing teaching and education’. Local teacher educators and student teachers are, in collaboration with teachers and students from schools, experimenting with approaches in teacher education (professional inquiry). There are both subject specific and transdisciplinary projects – an example from science is described. The research examines in what ways participation in the professional inquiry projects contribute to teacher educators’ experience of practicing and developing professional agency related to educational development, and what practices of participation and cooperation are enabled for the student teachers. A key finding is that it appears to be possible as a novice (student teacher) to be positioned as co-developer. Professional inquiry in teacher education provides both student teachers and the teacher educators with an experience of being positioned as competent professionals, there is a bottom-up element of autonomy, and furthermore focus on co-creation/relatedness.