The Icarus Effect Rephrased: Range of Semantic Gravity and Forms of Knowledge in New Norwegian Teacher Education

Abstract

In the 2000s, several major education reforms have been implemented in Norway. The reform in the teacher education is heavily inspired by the Finnish model, with introduction of a new research-based content, with the aim of developing a new type of professional knowledge, as a basis for teachers’ professional practice. Drawing on Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory, this paper explores the tensions in the new Norwegian teacher education, between knowledge and ways of knowing, by examining students’ practices, expressed in students’ research and development papers in the new teacher education. The paper refutes a one-dimensional concept of experience-based practical knowledge in the teacher education and argues that professional knowledge is based on practices that are informed by specialized and theoretical knowledge.