Lärares yrkeslandskap : ett institutionellt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: School education takes place in an institution, which means certain restrictions on how teaching can be arranged and what learning processes can be established. The purpose of the present study is to examine the possible consequences of the institutional conditions characterising a school for teachers’ work. The object of analyses is teachers’ work as part of and a response to the institutional conditions and the more specific question is about the consequences of those conditions seen in relation to the task of preparing pupils to become active citizens.The analyses is directed towards a critical interpretation of the institutional conditions, based on a view that social processes are contradictory and characterised by power relations and that an awareness of restrictions will make it easier to overcome or change them. Insight into what forces make up a situation will facilitate social action.An institutional analysis presupposes institutionally related concepts, why some concepts which are not too frequently used in educational contexts have been introduced. These institutionally oriented conceptual tools aim at clarifying what implications for actions are built into different situations. They indicate current restrictions, but still leave room for alternative actions.The main focus of the study is on the classroom as a room for communication and learning seen in relation to processes of reflection, dialogue and experience which have been defined as necessary parts of a citizen education project. The conclusion is that teachers’ working conditions are contradictory from different points of view. There is a lack of coherence between programmatic goals and conditions offered to fulfil them, but there are also contradictions built into current teaching practices. Institutionalisation implies a limitation of the social space for action and a tendency to overlook the complexity of social processes. This does not mean that reflection, dialogue and experience do not occur in a classroom, but it means that this is rather an exception than a rule, and to accomplish a change presupposes changed institutional conditions.