Lärarkulturer och professionskoder. En komparativ studie av idrottslärare i Sverige och Grekland

Abstract

The present study focuses on the professional codes of physical education (PE) teachers in Swedish and Greek compulsory schools. Professional codes can be defined as rules that govern teachers’ constructions of discourses as to perceived working conditions and to declared intentions with instruction. Working conditions refer both to teacher collaboration and constitutional (curriculum), organizational (time) and physical (facilities) frames. Instruction intentions concern lesson’s content, content transmission and grading. Bernstein (2000) depicts codes in terms of classification, framing and forms of pedagogy. In this study, working conditions are analyzed as external classification and external framing, while instruction intentions are expressed through internal classification, internal framing and visible or invisible pedagogy. Nationwide surveys have been conducted in Sweden as well as in Greece to highlight working conditions and intentions of instruction. The final sample consisted of 707 Swedish PE teachers and 451 Greek PE teachers. In depth semi-structured interviews have also been administered with eight PE teachers in each country. Results on working conditions revealed three PE teacher cultures. In Swedish primary schools, PE teachers have a good collaboration with other teachers and restrictions due to issues of frame are not very problematic. In the Swedish lower secondary school, teachers collaborate intensively with other teachers, but are limited by organizational frames. At Greek compulsory schools, PE teachers do not collaborate often with other teachers and they perceive severe restrictions due to physical frames. Results on instruction intentions display four PE teacher cultures. Swedish PE teachers uphold competence codes in primary schools and perfection codes in lower secondary schools. Greek PE teachers promote strict performance codes in lower secondary schools and a kind of a performance code in primary schools. A competence code stresses consensual sports activities, democratic instruction procedures and invisible pedagogy while a perfection code refers to autonomy, self responsibility and surveillance. A strict performance code is characterized by differentiating sports activities, discipline and visible pedagogy. The kind of a performance code that PE teachers use in primary schools in Greece is not combined with visible pedagogy. The various codes can be seen in the broader context of cultural reproduction within the Swedish and Greek educational systems.