Én socialanalytisk tendensanalyse af samtidens italesættelser af den gymnasiale lærergerning

During the last decade the Danish Upper Secondary School has undergone a variety of reforms and modernization initiatives. The Danish Ministry of Education has argued that changes in the upper secondary schools are needed if the government's stated aims are to be reached. It is not an easy task to create successful reforms. Moreover, it is not uncommon that reforms have unintended effects that undermine their intended purposes. The research literature outlines a number of reasons for these unintended effects. First, teachers are not always reform minded yet their willingness is needed if reforms are to succeed. Second, teachers' educational experiences throughout their lives also play an important role in understanding how educational practice can be managed. Changing educational experience is not an easy task and how teachers' understand change in education is critical to reform. Third, because teachers are both indispensable and obstructionist toward reforms, we are witnesses to the way various individualization and modernization discourses produce and present many perspectives on how contemporary teachers must practice the teaching profession.
Perspectives that have roots in different knowledge regimes lead to disparate rationales, values and interests are at stake. Such perspectives may open new possibilities and conditions, while also causing confusion making it difficult for teachers to handle change in their profession.

In this dissertation I examine how the upper secondary teacher – as the rest of the society – is subject to different individualization and modernization discourses and thereby different perspectives on how they must handle their teaching profession. I analyze how these discourses and perspectives are influencing the upper secondary teaching profession discourses. The aim is to answer the following main question:

What tendencies are at stake in contemporary upper secondary teacher professional discourses and with what possible consequences?

The specific place where I „listen‟ to the contemporary upper secondary teaching profession discourses is in the upper secondary teacher educational field called “pædagogikum”. I „listen‟ to the way different actors in this field, that is teacher candidates and experienced teachers, speak of their teaching profession. I am interested in how teacher candidates and experienced teachers talk about the teaching profession in addition to what they speak of and the way they speak of their ideas. While listening to the voices of teacher candidates and experienced teachers and recognizing their practical and theoretical discourses, I was also able to „listen‟ to similarities and differences among teacher candidates and experienced teachers.

The theoretical lens for the study uses a social-analytical perspective developed by the Danish professor and philosopher Lars-Henrik Schmidt. This has several ontological, epistemological and methodological consequences, which I describe in chapter II and III. Based on a social-analytical assumption, I claim that the ways the candidates and experienced teachers speak of the upper secondary teaching profession are dependent on the contemporary historical apriori. These historical apriori have influences on how they speak, what they speak of, and why they speak as they do.

That is why the following two sub-questions are examined:
1: What tendencies are at stake in contemporary modernization and individualization discourses and what does it mean for the individual subject in general and practicing teachers more specifically?
2: Are these tendencies at stake in upper secondary policy and reform documents? If so, what does it means for the upper secondary teacher?

Before answering the above questions, I introduce the social-analytical perspective in chapter II. Here I discuss the ontological, epistemological and methodical consequences of this approach for my research. I am especially interested in focusing on the social-analytical anchoring within active perspectivism and I illustrate what it means for my analysis and interpretations. To be clear about the social-analytical impact and in order to clarify the category interpretation, I contrast the socialanalytical position with objectivism in the context of positivism. I show that my „study object‟ is not objectively given. It must be seen as a construction. This is why I regard identity between object and concept as an illusion. An interpretation in the social-analytical perspective is a „construction‟ where we are constantly forced to use categories to conceptualize the world „as something‟. This means that using other categories gives other conceptualizations and thereby „another world‟. The social-analytical perspective has, as I advance, several similarities with social constructivism despite minor differences. It should also be clear, that I am not after „the things themselves‟ and after „real essences‟ (phenomenology). Neither do I understand interpretation as a fusion of horizons (hermeneutics).

In chapter III the specific social-analytical conceptual frame is presented as well as my analysis strategy. First, I introduce the basic analytical categories. Second, I explain how I identify similarities and variations among different discourses. Third, I focus on the social-analytical communication and transmission categories. When we are communicating, we are also transmitting something: for instance, cultural values, logics, rationalities, and unvoiced taken for granted issues. Fourth, I describe how the cultural as well as social conditions have influences on how we speak and what we are speaking about. Fifth, the social-analytic maps are unfolded. To make it clear how I am using my categories and the social-analytical maps, I regularly give concrete examples. The examples only serve the purpose to exemplify and deepen my analysis strategy.

In chapter IV I start answering the first sub-question. I focus on different modernization and individualization discourses. I argue that a tendency to profanization, personalization and juvenilization are at stake in these discourses. Profanization means that we are witnesses to a loss of meaning related to the teaching profession. As a result of this it becomes harder to point out what characterizes a teacher. Is a teacher one who has certain subject knowledge skills? Is a teacher a charismatic person who can attract the students‟ attention? Is a teacher one who strives to fulfill national stated objectives? Or is a teacher one who is able to sell the goods (education) to the consumers (students)? Personalization refers to the increased concern of the individual personhood. Today, it is not enough to develop skills and qualifications. Generally, skills and qualifications are considered less important in relation to an individual's employability and personhood. By juvenilization I mean that the individual must be forever young. Learning is for life, from cradle to grave.

Chapter V contains an analysis of upper secondary policy and reform documents. In this chapter the second sub-question is answered. Based on my analysis, I contend that in principle there are four different and conflicting ways to handle the upper secondary teaching profession: As a Reflective Practitioner, as a Custodian, as a Charismatic person and as a Strategist. On these grounds I claim that a tendency to profanization, personalization and juvenilization can be traced in the policy and reform documents as well. This conclusion is elaborated upon and the chapter ends with a discussion of possible consequences.

My methods and methodological considerations are presented in chapter VI. I discuss my qualitative interview study and show how my research proceeded. It includes the logic, criteria and theoretical perspectives undergirding the research problems. This is followed by an interview guide, the criteria used to select research participants, and the data analysis conducted to identify emergent themes.

In chapter VII and in Chapter VIII I analyze interviews. The analysis of the interviews shows that both the teacher candidates and the experienced teachers relate to their teaching profession in several ways. Both the teacher candidates and the experienced teachers have a strong focus on their university subject(s). Traditionally, university subjects have been the most important things for the upper secondary teacher to master. The teacher as a Custodian has always been– and still is – very important. Today, it is not just enough for the custodian to master the university subject(s). It is also becoming very important that the custodian teacher focuses on student achievement and assessment as well as an evaluation of their own teaching. Additionally there are many other things contemporary upper secondary teachers must have an eye for. Both the teacher candidates and the experienced teachers know that they must be able to act as Reflective practitioners and thereby strengthen their theoretical pedagogical reflections, participate in teacher teams and must – despite their different faculty backgrounds – work together to design curricular activities such as the General Study Preparation. They must also use various methods of working. For instance classroom instruction, project work, individual and group based written work etc. It is pointed out by the candidates and the experienced teachers that it is not an easy task to fulfill these tasks. Therefore many problems arise.

In light of Structural Reform 2007 the Danish upper secondary schools are turned into selfgoverning institutions. The budgets of the schools are now depending on the number of enrolled students and the number of graduating students. I argue that this reform lead to that the teachers speak in more Strategic and market orientated ways. Especially, considering the teacher must act in a more efficient and economic way. For that reason, it seems important that the teacher also is able to act as a Charismatic teacher and are able to use his/her personhood to maintain the students and get them to complete the school.

Chapter IV contains a summary of my interview analyses. Here the focus is on how the widespread conflicting and contradictory demands and expectations place the contemporary upper secondary teacher in complex and difficult situations. For instance, the teacher must simultaneously focus on the interests and needs of students, schools and society, while attempting to implement ministerial requirements with a view toward cultivating creative, innovative, competency-oriented and procedural dimensions for teaching while focusing on clear, fixed and measurable teaching goals.

Furthermore, I take a closer look at the upper secondary teacher education field “pædagogikum”. My argument is that the teacher education field tends to perpetuate the status quo because experienced teachers tend to teach their ideas, values and assumptions to the candidates. One of the assumptions is that many things are relying on individual and personal experiences. It makes it difficult to implement new and fruitful ideas in practice. Perhaps it is why the candidates do not seem interested in theoretical-pedagogical theories, but instead seek technical and instrumental pedagogical tips they can unproblematically put into their teaching practice as easy as possible. By the end of this chapter I discuss and problematize the tendency that upper secondary schools must assign to the imperative market regime and paradigm. I analyze the underlying conflict between the aims of education and the aims of a market-drive economy.
At the end of this chapter the following question is answered: Can the tendency to profanization, personalization and juvenilization be traced in the teacher candidates and experienced teachers articulations?

In chapter X the most important findings are summarized. Afterwards I evaluate the consequences of my findings. In addition I weigh the „strengths‟ and „weaknesses‟ of the research methods and methodology used in the dissertation. I point out that it is important to examine further how the teaching profession is handled in practice and what convergence there might be between speech and action. For this reason, observational studies could be useful. Furthermore, given the interviews were conducted in 2008 using one set of analytical tools, further interviews could prove fruitful, or the use of another set of analytical tools could be employed. The dissertation ends with an acknowledgement that the relationship between schooling and a market-drive economy will likely continue to demand further changes in education in the foreseeable future.