The contribution of graduation research to school development

When teaching is considered as a collaborative activity, the aim of research projects in schools needs to exceed the individual and personal levels and aim to contribute to research-informed reflection of a team of teachers. Within this multiple case study, we adapted the graduation research project within a primary teacher education programme, trying to bridge the personal level (where student-teachers show their individual competence) and the collaborative level (where the graduation research project aims to inspire practice of several teachers within a school). In this redesign ownership, meaningfulness and dialogue were helpful. However, our study shows that connecting graduation research projects with school development is not just a matter of redesigning a part of the curriculum, but that it requires new perspectives and new qualities of student-teachers, research supervisors from the university and actors within the school.