Norwegian science teacher educators’ views of the master’s thesis within teacher education for primary and lower secondary school.

This study is part of the Norwegian research project TRELIS (Teachers’ Research Literacy for Science teaching) with the aim to prepare research literate science teachers. Teacher education has a central role in enhancing teachers’ research literacy (Lillejord & Børte, 2016) and within the reformed teacher education, students get insight into research, learn how to use research-based teaching methods and carry out their own research projects including a master’s thesis (Eklund et el., 2022). Teacher educators are key persons in supporting students’ research literacy and in writing their master’s thesis. The aim of this paper is to investigate science teacher educators’ views of the master’s thesis and the supervision process. The research questions more specifically concern teacher educators’ perceptions, role and competence in supervising the master’s theses. Teacher education for primary and lower secondary schools became masters-based in 2017 and the first cohort of students graduated in spring 2022. It is therefore of interest to focus on this group and the supervision of their master’s thesis. In total, 14 teacher educators were interviewed, two from each of the seven institutions offering master’s specialization in science education. All teacher educators had experience of supervising master’s theses, although they represented different educational backgrounds and supervision experiences. The interviews were conducted at zoom and lasted for approximately 30 minutes each. The interviews followed an interview guide consisting of eleven questions focusing on background information of the respondents, the relevance of the master’s thesis, challenges and possibilities related to the master thesis and the supervision process and the supervisors’ competence. The interviews were analyzed inductively, following the six steps of thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Preliminary findings show that the teacher educators perceive the supervision process as challenging, especially among those with little experience of supervision in teacher education. They emphasized the importance of good structures and scaffolding for the supervision of the master’s thesis. In addition, some mentioned the opportunity to develop their competence in science education and supervision as crucial. The study has relevance to the discussion in the Nordic countries on research-based teacher education. The focus on teacher educators’ views of the master’s thesis and the supervision process can further contribute to the development of master’s theses within teacher education. References Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. Eklund, G., Mestad, I., Aksland, C., & Jegstad , K. M. (2022). Research assignments in teacher education : Norwegian undergraduate student teachers’ experiences of the writing process. Acta Didactica Norden, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.9196. Lillejord, S., & Børte, K. (2016). Partnership in teacher education - a research mapping. European Journal of Teacher Education, 39(5), 550–563.