Abstract
ABSTRACT This article presents the results from a survey investigating 708 Swedish and 1583 Finnish teachers’ perceived autonomy with a focus on the teachers’ perceptions of who makes the most important decisions in school. Teacher autonomy is seen as exercised at different levels; by teachers individually in the classroom or by teachers as a collective in school; and in different domains of teachers’ work, since the degree of decision-making by teachers is likely to differ between educational, social, developmental and administrational issues. Finnish and Swedish teachers’ perceived autonomy varied in somewhat different ways between the domains. Finnish teachers generally perceived themselves to be more individually autonomous, while Swedish teachers were more collegially oriented.
Highlights
There is no doubt that teacher autonomy is an important factor when explaining good practice in schooling
We argue that Sweden and Finland are interesting cases in order to investigate the nature of teacher autonomy in the desired way: In Sweden, for example, the teacher profession and its autonomy has gained increased attention over the last decades, and has been at the centre of a polarized debate, where some claim that teachers are too autonomous and call for more central control of teachers and schools in order to ensure school quality, whereas others argue that the school reforms have led to decreased autonomy and a de-professionalization of teachers (Carlgren, 2009; Stenlås, 2011)
Sometimes the teachers’ autonomy seemed to be a kind of compromise or a trade-off, where a high degree of autonomy at one level or in one domain could work as a constraining factor for other levels and domains
Summary
There is no doubt that teacher autonomy is an important factor when explaining good practice in schooling. Some studies consider that teacher autonomy is important for attracting students to teacher education, while others even suggest that it increases school efficiency, since, they argue, autonomous teachers with influence over the educational decisions they are urged to implement are more likely to succeed in solving school problems. These are some of the reasons why teachers’ autonomy has been the focus of much research during the last decades. Because of these difficulties, Wilches (2007) highlights the difference between subjective and objective levels of analysis, where a subjective analysis pays respect to teachers’ perceived autonomy, which can be constrained by limitations in teachers’ competence, job satisfaction, confidence and attitudes towards teaching and learning, while an objective analysis investigates external factors that might constrain teachers’ autonomy, such as workload, lack of time and power structures within the school organization, and external constraints from a political level, where central control by
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