This study aims to explore what pre-service elementary teachers think about the use they will give to research in their future teaching professional practice. Thirty-three pre-service elementary teachers from a Chilean university were interviewed using a phenomenographic approach. Analysis yielded four categories of description, ranging from research as something disconnected from their teaching practice to research as something useful to create educational related knowledge. Three dimensions of variation, namely use of research, foreseen impact and teachers' role in relation to research, provide a richer picture of the outcome space. Results may guide curricular developers to think of the place of research in teacher education, and thus have relevant practical implications.