Relevance of the master's thesis for becoming a professional teacher

Abstract

The introduction of the master thesis into teacher education programs has the intention of providing a more research-based professional education for coming teachers. In this chapter, we analyze the focus and contribution of the master theses from graduates of the teacher education program at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT). We present two studies: the first study analyzes the methods, themes and approaches in all 236 master theses completed between 2015 and 2019. The second study analyzes interviews of 42 teachers from the first three cohorts of the pilot at UiT and nine interviews with teachers from cohort three, after five years in practice. The main finding from study 1 shows a dominant use of interview studies but with a considerable variety in themes and approaches. Master students researched practice, but mainly as spectators, and not as participants in improving practice. Several of the teachers in study 2 are positive for the contribution of the thesis if they can use the competence in their teaching. As a knowledge contribution to teacher education, we argue that ideally the master thesis should be developed as a two-step process: first using descriptive approaches which serve as the basis for an action research approach as the second step.