Beyond the research–practice gap: Constructing epistemic relations in teacher education

Abstract

This article is a conceptual contribution to the research literature on the relations between research and professional practice in teacher education. In many countries, policymakers and practitioners emphasise the need for teacher education to be both research based and professionally relevant. However, limited conceptual attention has been given to the epistemic interrelationships between research-based knowledge and professional practice. We introduce the concept of epistemic relations to examine how such in- terrelationships can be understood. We adopt a social-practice based perspective on knowledge to analytically delineate three aspects of epistemic relations: relations between different knowledge resources, relations between different processes of knowledge genera- tion, and the implications of epistemic relations for student teachers’ learning. We conclude by discussing pedagogical implications for teacher education.