Skolförändring, reformer och professionella villkor - en etnografisk studie

Abstract

This is a dissertation primarily built on ethnographic methodology. It examines how teachers and principals react to and handle change. The overall aim of the study is to investigate how general and specific changes have influenced the organization of power and relationships in the institutional practice of secondary schools, and how teachers and principals react to and reason about the consequences of these changes. Specifically, the dissertation addresses four sub-questions: How do teachers driving a local change process handle criticism and resistance from their colleagues? How does the implementation of a career reform affect the school's administrative logic and teachers' influence over the institutional practice? How does the implementation of a reform aimed at rewarding particularly skilled teachers affect the school's administrative logic and teachers' professional identity? How do larger societal changes in the welfare sector over the past three decades manifest in value changes in local school practices? The findings connect the reactions that arise and the strategies formulated at the micro-level to the transformation of Swedish welfare society in general and the education system in particular over the past three decades.