On 8 and 9 October 2026, the first annual conference of the Pro2 doctoral programme took place, hosted by the University of Cologne. The doctoral programme was established in early 2025 through a cooperation agreement between Carl von Ossietzky University, the University of Cologne and the Zurich University of Teacher Education. The initiators of the founding initiative were Prof. Dr Julia Kosinar and Prof. Dr Tobias Leonhard (Zurich University of Teacher Education), Prof. Dr Petra Herzmann (University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr Till-Sebastian Idel (University of Oldenburg). Within the doctoral programme, doctoral candidates from the three institutions conduct research into issues of professionalisation using methods of qualitative-reconstructive research (documentary method, subjectification-theoretical address analysis, ethnography and objective hermeneutics). In Cologne, nine doctoral candidates discussed the progress of their projects and provided each other with feedback. The thematic scope of the dissertations discussed ranged from studies on changes in teachers’ status, through the habitus of teachers with a Waldorf school background, to an analysis of training interactions in the second phase of teacher training.