Independence is a central ideal in Swedish Higher education and is embedded in course syllabuses, local course descriptions and assessment criteria. At the same time, the concept has long been interpreted in different ways across disciplinary contexts, creating ambiguity and a lack of consensus around what independent student work actually means. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) text robots such as ChatGPT and Copilot has made this issue more urgent challenging established assumptions about writing, authorship, and student performance. This study explores how independence in writing is understood, required, and assessed in different disciplinary contexts within Swedish teacher education. The study also explores how academic teachers describe disciplinary writing practices and how they define independence in student writing. Adopting an academic literacies perspective, this study views writing as a social and situated practice influenced by norms and conditions. Within this perspective, writing and writing norms differ between situations and contexts. Typical academic concepts such as 'independence' are thus interpreted differently in different contexts. Teacher education is a particularly relevant setting because students move between subjects with different academic traditions, writing practices, and assessment cultures. The empirical material consists of focus groups interviews with teachers from different disciplinary areas in teacher education. By analyzing how independence is formulated and operationalized across contexts, the study aims to contribute knowledge about how AI reshapes the conditions for academic writing and about the challenges this creates for students in teacher education. describe disciplinary writing practices and how they define independence in student writing. Adopting an academic literacies perspective, this study views writing as a social and situated practice influenced by norms and conditions. Within this perspective, writing and writing norms differ between situations and contexts. Typical academic concepts such as 'independence' are thus interpreted differently in different contexts. Teacher education is a particularly relevant setting because students move between subjects with different academic traditions, writing practices, and assessment cultures. The empirical material consists of focus groups interviews with teachers from different disciplinary areas in teacher education. By analyzing how independence is formulated and operationalized across contexts, the study aims to contribute knowledge about how AI reshapes the conditions for academic writing and about the challenges this creates for students in teacher education.

Keywords: Writing, Academic literacies, AI, independence, teacher education.