The role of research in teacher education is a widely discussed topic by policymakers as well as by researchers and practitioners. At the policy level, there seems to be a general claim that teacher education shall be research based (OECD, 2005; European Commission, 2013; Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, 2021; Norwegian Ministry of Knowledge, 2020). The claims are strong, however, the interpretation and the operationalisation of the role of research in teacher education is, to say it mildly, vague. In this paper, I will briefly present voices of some international researchers with the purpose of illuminating the complex roles research plays in teacher education. A major part of this paper will present an example of how Norway has attempted to operationalise the complexity of balancing between teacher educators' researcherly and pedagogical dispositions by funding the National Research School in Teacher Education (NAFOL). The overall goal of the research school is to develop "researching teacher educators" with equal value of all the three words.