The aim of this paper is to investigate and compare lessons given in primary school teacher education in Japan, Finland and Sweden. We analyse one lesson from each country and compare them using a common framework. Chevallard's anthropological theory of the didactic (ATD) is used to frame this analysis and in particular to model teacher educators' didactic organization of the lessons. The focus is on how the didactic organizations of the teacher educators relate to the mathematical and didactic organizations of primary school. Based on official documents and viewpoints of the teacher educators, we also discuss how the contents and descriptions of the national curricula, and the different traditions of the teaching practices in each country, influence the didactic organizations found in the lessons.