This article analyzes student teachers' interactions in different practices over a period of one semester. We use Cultural-Historical Activity theory as a theoretical framework to address how interactions at the boundaries in teacher education are constructed and made relevant to the participants when they are working on object constructions. In the analysis, we show how an object, conceptualization of goals in education, emerges and develop in interactions, and how the object's trajectory differs as the students move between practices. In the analysis we call these practices learning spheres. Our findings indicate that the participants' positions are of importance. In teacher-led situations, such as supervision and mentoring, the teachers influenced the construction of the object, whereas in group work, the student teachers pursued and explored a variety of object constructions. Meaning emerges in the dialectical relationship between activity and action, and is regulated by the enactment of rules and norms, and the division of labor. An important finding is that the student teachers' learning trajectories vary across the different parts of the teacher education program.

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Transformation in teacher education is seen as crucial for creating change within the educational system. In this article, we explore how members in a teacher education program interpret new ideas and tools such as portfolio assessment, case-based methods, and ICT. These ideas and tools are important conditions for the collective change of the institution, where portfolio assessment emerges as a new object between the subjectoriented communities. In activity theoretical terms, we suggest that learning is a matter of acting on and talking about the object within and between communities. These sideways movements lead to transformations on the object. This conception also gives us an alternative perspective on the classical theory/practice problem.

The theory-practice gap is a recurring problem in teacher education. This article is concerned with how student teachers learn to teach at the boundaries between university courses and internships. I investigate how participants create meaning around scientific concepts, and how they respond to the institutional context they act in, thereby making it relevant. These questions are addressed by employing the Cultural-Historical Activity theory. The study took place at the Department for Teacher Education and School Research at the University of Oslo. The data are based on extensive observations in various settings at the university and schools offering internships. Interaction analysis is used to analyze participation in different settings. The analysis shows that the students encounter divergent structures and discourses in the course of their learning trajectories. What counts as knowledge differs between universities and schools, and within the university. In teacher-led situations, student teachers are positioned in relation to the teachers and mentors, with few opportunities for knowledge construction. The study also shows instances where the student teachers explore and elaborate upon knowledge in new ways, such as in group collaborations. From the perspective of the student, it seems reasonable to argue that the contradictions within and between the activity systems serve as constraints on learning. However, to create coherent programs, concepts and ideas about teaching and learning have to be shared by Departments of Teacher Education DTEs and partner schools.