Svenskläraren som vision och konstruktion

Sammanfattning: The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how the teacher of Swedish is envisioned andcreated in curricula and syllabi. Teacher education in Sweden is regulated in the HigherEducation Act, the Higher Education Ordinance, and the Government Bill on TeacherEducation. At the same time, universities which have been granted degree-awarding powersare free to organise teacher education according to their interpretation of the regulations.The empirical material consists of 42 curricula and 261 syllabi from teacher educationprogrammes at 22 Swedish universities. The documents were gathered in 2009, a pivotalyear for the teacher education, since it was to undergo major changes over the following twoyears.For the analysis of the curricula and syllabi, theories and concepts from curriculumstudies, as well as discourse theory, and critical discourse analysis, were used. Sixinterviews were conducted with educators at three selected universities in order to obtainbackground information on the processes of writing syllabi.In these documents, six patterns for envisioning and creating the teacher of Swedish couldbe distinguished. The first three emphasise academic goals, professional perspectives, anddemocratic values, which enjoy privileged positions due to their close connection withofficially declared goals for higher education. The fourth and fifth can be interpreted as theresults of political, organisational or social considerations. The sixth pattern, favouringfunction, can be seen as a hybrid of the others. This last pattern proves to be the mostcommon in the empirical material. Its articulation varies considerably, but a commondenominator is the need to frame the subject, since there is less of a given framework thanin the patterns relying on their connection with different discourses.In envisioning and creating the teacher of Swedish, teacher education at individualuniversities can achieve a degree of freedom within the regulating framework. This willallow the educators in the teacher education to make good use of their competence andnetworks. The profile also matters to trainee teachers, who will get a better overview oftheir studies. Finally, in developing their ability for meta-reflection on their profession,trainee teachers are more likely to develop a deliberate approach to teaching. Thus, they willbe better prepared to create the learning environment and make the demands that will helppupils achieve learning objectives.