Ett utbildningslandskap i förändring : En kritisk policystudie om synen på lärarutbildningen, dess behov av reformering och diskursiva effekter för lärarprofessionen

Sammanfattning

The Swedish education system has been subject to several reforms since the 20th century, including the decentralization, municipalization, and to some extent recentralization. Alongside these developments, previous research shows that the results of Swedish students have deteriorated. For this reason, government initiatives has been made in attempt to reverse the negative trend. As a result, several changes have been implemented regarding teacher education, but despite several reforms, the Swedish school system has not improved students results. Now there is once again a new proposal for a reformed teacher education. The purpose of the study is to critically examine the proposal for new teacher education by studying which problems and solutions are focused on and what discursive effects these may have for the teaching profession. The methodological framework of this study is What's the problem represented to be?, by Carol Bacchi. The empirical material concerns two policy texts, which provide the foundation for the proposed new teacher education. The results of the study show that there are several challenges regarding the teaching profession. Student teachers are considered to be poorly qualified, the profession is described as having low attractiveness and status, and in addition, the current teaching profession does not seem to live up to government expectations. Teacher education is described as deficient, the content needs to change and also requires a clearer connection to research and science. From an overall perspective, indications of a governance problem are made visible where the municipality is responsible for the school, while the state is working in parallel to save the results of Swedish students. Teachers, for their part, are held accountable for the failure of Swedish students. The study's contribution to the research field includes an in-depth understanding of how the specific proposal for new teacher education shapes our understanding of and view of teacher education, its need for reform, and the discursive effects it has on the teaching profession.