In order to increase student performance, governments stress the importance of standardization for teaching which is seen as a threat to teachers' professionalism. In this small-scale study we investigated the way teachers use their professional space in these changing circumstances. We studied eighteen cases of secondary education teachers indepth, using observations, interviews, and storylines. Our analyses revealed two types of trajectories which can be characterized by bounded and contested agency. In both trajectories the importance of personal factors and environmental factors were acknowledged. Insights into the relation between perceived space and agency can promote our understanding of teacher professionalism.

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This study investigates how work placement contributes to the integration of practical skills and theoretical knowledge in teacher education. The lack of connection has commonly been criticised in teacher education as well as in other professional studies. The aim of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how practicum interacts with the university coursework to enhance professional competencies among student teachers. The context is three different Norwegian teacher education programmes that prepare for secondary school. In focus groups the students describe the placement context and the differences between learning on campus and in the practice field. Furthermore, they explain the outcome of field experiences. The findings show that the learning in practicum should not be taken for granted. The students experience great differences between workplaces related to attitudes, support, facilities, mentoring and possibilities to learn from experiences. Practicum should be recognised as an important part of student teachers' education. It should not be left to chance, but have a binding framework related to the quality of mentoring and the working conditions student teachers are offered.

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As a young teacher I yearned for the day when I would know my craft so well, be so competent, so experienced, and so powerful, that I would walk into any classroom without feeling afraid" (P. J. Palmer 1998, p. 57). To be a teacher or a teacher educator means to participate in an ongoing professional but also personal learning process. Writing this thesis has been a further step on the road of learning to know more about myself and the world I live in. I have always believed and told my students that it is decisive for learning to experience that other people believe in what you are doing. Still I have never experienced this so strongly myself as through the work on this thesis. Without support and trust from other people my work would never had been finished. I want to thank my supervisor Rune Krumsvik for his support. Further my other colleagues in teacher education. This community has been a support for me from the first day I met my dear colleagues Marit Ulvik and Ragna Aadlandsvik. Thank you Kari Smith for having brought the world into this environment and us into the world! Further I want to thank Sølvi Lillejord for the support she has been to me from the day I wrote the first words of my project proposal. Support is also the keyword for what I always experience from my family and friends. Anyway, this time I have to bring up one family member before all the others. Thank you Anne! And of course Sigurd who always understands what kind of support I need in any situation. Voss 18 th of December Ingrid Helleve Helleve, I. & Krumsvik, R. (In press). If ICT is the answer-what should be the question? In R. Krumsvik (Ed.