The aim of this study is to scrutinize the use of vertical and horizontal discourse to analyse the relationship between theoretical and practical parts in initial Teacher education (TE). The relationship between theory and practice is a basic and complex issue in TE, as for all academic professional educations (Westbury et al., 2005). Studies have highlighted that students in TE have problems with the connection of theory and practice and that teacher educators needs to support this connection (Eriksson, 2009). Researchers have distinguished two different kinds of discourses that reflects a dichotomy between theoretical and practical knowledge (Beach, 2011; Bernstein, 1999). The horizontal discourse is connected with everyday language and common-sense knowledge related to the practical area and is often oral and contextual (Beach, 2011). The vertical discourse is often developed within academic disciplines and consists of hierarchically organised knowledge with special concepts and language (Bernstein, 1999). As the horizontal discourse is more bound to a practical context, it provides a poor basis for developing a reflective professional practice (Bernstein, 1999). The vertical discourse with its robust system of concepts that can be used by students and help them to describe and theorise from empirical situations that gives them a broader understanding of the teaching situation (Beach, 2011). However, a disadvantage of the vertical discourse is that TE can get too theoretical, making it difficult for the students to see how such knowledge relates to the professional work (Meeus et al., 2004). Ideally, a balance between the discourses is desirable and studies have revealed that they can be integrated to some extent (Maaranen & Krokfors, 2008). This study will be a systematic review of international research concerning the use vertical and horizontal discourse about the theory-practice relationship in TE. The expectations of this review is to highlight the possibilities and problems connected with the use of these concepts in this kind of research. The findings will be transferable in several aspects to other academic professional educations as there are many similarities between these kinds of educations.