Tore West is currently full professor in education at Stockholm University. Earlier positions include the Stockholm Institute of Education (2002-2008) and the Swedish Royal College of Music (1993-2002). His research focuses on video recorded classroom interaction with an interest in social semiotics and multimodal analysis of educational interaction, assessment, and designs for learning, in the fields of music education, open educational resources on the Internet, and within the civil society.

Publications include Kartan och terrängen - Orientera i det didaktiska landskapet (2023), 'What students value in their teachers – an analysis of nominations to a teaching award' in Högre utbildning (2023), ' Designs for Learning – Designs in learning' in Learning as social practice - Beyond education as an individual enterprise (2021),  ‘Music and designed sound' in The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (2014), Design för lärande i musik (2010), ‘Music education as text' in Nordic research in music education (2008),'Educational interaction design' in the Swedish anthology Designs for learning (2008), ‘Multi-layered analysis of teacher-student interactions' in Pedagogies(2007), ‘Theoretical and methodological perspectives on designing video studies of interaction' in International journal of qualitative methods (2005), as well as a number of articles on interaction and learning in music education. Current research includes studies of interaction and learning, including knowledge representations and assessment practises in a variety of learning situations.

Founder of the research group Didactics as communication. Former chair of the Editorial board for Stockholm studies in education, member of the editorial advisory board for Visual Communication and Review of Research in Education (AERA). Reviewer for Music Education Research, Social Semiotics, Nordic Studies in Education, Designs for Learning and Nordic Research in Music Education.

West has been Head of department and deputy head at four different departments, among other positions. He is also Inspector for the Social Sciences Association at Stockholm University.

He has presented papers and lectured on methodology and theoretical issues as well as research findings at (among others) Free University of Berlin (Germany), Royal College of Music (Sweden), James Cook University (Australia), University of Oslo (Norway), Sibelius Academy (Finland), University of Pennsylvania (USA), University of Exeter (UK), University of Music and Drama Hanover (Germany), University of Surrey Roehampton (UK), London University, as well as several Swedish universities. He has given more than 100 lectures and practical workshops for in-service teachers in Sweden, plus several courses at teacher-training programs and doctoral programs.

Prof. West has supervised 12 doctoral students to successful examination, examined or reviewed more than 40 doctoral dissertations, and supervised well over 100 undergraduate final papers.