Towards an A-team and a B-team?

Current reports show that teachers experience the worst psychosocial work environment among all occupational categories, where the main reason is a misbalance between demand and support in the role.

At the same time, the school as a work organisation has an absolutely central role in society, which is a motif for examining the conditions surrounding the teaching profession.

More specifically, the governance of welfare sector professionals has changed during the last decades, which has impacted on the working conditions, including the discretionary power. One governance change is the school choice reform, which is an example of deregulation of welfare services, and also an example of the choice agenda in the public sector. Although it has been more than 20 years since the introduction of the school choice reform, the knowledge on impact on the teaching profession is limited. The aim of the project is to examine and discuss how teachers understand their working conditions in relation to the reform, using sociology of professions as the theoretical framework. With this perspective we can gain more knowledge about the governance dynamics and the consequences from the professionals’ perspective.

The project is based on a qualitative approach, in form of interviews with teachers, but also a nation wide survey to generate knowledge about teachers’ working conditions as they relate to the school choice reform.

The project is led by Professor Karolina Parding. The project is funded by FORTE, 2014-2018. There is a sister-project tied to this, which is a comparative study between Sweden and Australia.