ABSTRACT
This and the following chapter aim to show how it is possible to go beyond binary practices in higher education at large and more specifically in teacher education. What do I mean when I talk about binary practices? I am talking about practices where we keep to the familiar but constructed idea that learning contents and skills are separated into limited academic or practical subjects, such as maths, reading and writing, history, biology, art, gymnastics and sports, art, etc. There have been discussions in education for more than a hundred years now on how to do trans-or inter-disciplinary teaching to connect to children’s and students’ lived and hands-on experiences, and relate to and pick up on students’ various and different intelligences, skills and abilities (Dewey, 2004; Gardner, 1985). A major reason why developing such inter-disciplinary teaching and learning strategies has failed is the complicated power relationship in the binary divides that seem to master our thinking in education. These divides relate back to the time of the Western Enlightenment (Ball, 1994; Bauman, 1991; Hekman, 1990; Readings, 1996).
