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Changing teacher education in Sweden?

a meta-ethnographic analysis based on three long-term policy ethnographic investigations

Dennis Beach , Anita Eriksson, Catarina Player-Koro

pp. 823-842

This chapter has been developed from a meta-ethnographic analysis of national and international ethnographic research in teacher education. The interpretation of the results from three policy ethnographic studies of teacher education, related to three recent rounds of teacher education reform in Sweden, is however the main focal point. These investigations cover a 30 year reform period from the mid-1980s to the present day. Together they have allowed us to critically reinterpret the most recent round of reform and the recent teacher education policies of the right wing alliance government. The political decisions of this government in teacher education have turned policy development there away from professional unification and the development of a common scientific (cognitive) base of professionalism, toward a horizontal and fragmented cognitive base within a dualistic teacher education structure. This policy turn has previously been termed as a re-traditionalisation turn in teacher education policy making. It has been made on purely ideological foundations and runs against all available scientific evidence concerning teacher education and the professional knowledge needs of teachers.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_39

Full citation:

Beach, D. , Eriksson, A. , Player-Koro, C. (2015)., Changing teacher education in Sweden?: a meta-ethnographic analysis based on three long-term policy ethnographic investigations, in P. Smeyers, D. Bridges, N. C. Burbules & M. Griffiths (eds.), International handbook of interpretation in educational research, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 823-842.

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