In several European countries, teacher education is regulated by national plans that emphasise pedagogy as the central subject. Pedagogy shall include research-based knowledge, as well as having a strong connection between theory and practice. We have interviewed teacher educators about what they emphasise about theoretical and practical issues in the subject of pedagogy. Though they have to follow the curriculum, they express that they have different conceptions and emphasise different issues both in theoretical and practical pedagogy. Their answers point to the challenges between the establishment of a professional autonomy and the control the national curriculum imposes on them. The teacher educators were quite vague about their teaching about research-based knowledge. They expressed that they need support, time and possibilities to discuss the content in the curriculum and how to educate highly qualified teachers.