Abstract
ABSTRACTTeacher autonomy has become an increasingly popular research topic over the past decade, reflecting wider national and global education trends. In this light, this article investigates and compares the perceptions of German and Swedish teachers concerning their professional autonomy. We analyse teachers’ perceptions using a grid, and view teacher autonomy as a multidimensional phenomenon taking place in different domains (educational, social, developmental and administrative) and at different levels (classroom, school, profession). The findings show that the teachers interviewed in Germany and Sweden value autonomy in various domains and dimensions differently, even if there also are many similarities. In instruction, that is, the educational autonomy domain, they perceive themselves to be very autonomous, in particular in relation to choices of content and method. Autonomous work in the classroom arena is also seen as the very core of the teaching profession. Overall, German teachers perceive themselves to be significantly involved in more areas of their work, and they refer much more to decisions which are to be made, whereas their Swedish colleagues are more concerned about control. Finally, we discuss the findings in relation to different nation-specific forms of extended or restricted autonomy teacher autonomy.
Highlights
Teacher autonomy has become an increasingly popular research topic over the past decade, and this reflects wider national and global education trends
We argue that a German–Swedish comparison is interesting because it enables us to relate the phenomenon of teacher autonomy to contextual factors such as different governance regimes: Both countries present western K-12 school systems, based on democratic and meritocratic values
Parents serve as a controlling factor when it comes to student well-being in the classroom
Summary
Teacher autonomy has become an increasingly popular research topic over the past decade, and this reflects wider national and global education trends. Two international research reviews (Parker, 2015; Wilches, 2007) have been published quite recently, and both reviews summarize studies that clearly illustrate the positive impact of teacher autonomy on different aspects of teachers’ work. These studies show that teachers’ perceived autonomy can be seen to correlate positively with perceived selfefficacy, work-satisfaction, empowerment and a positive work climate. Many authors in the field would argue that teacher autonomy is an important, almost magical, ingredient for a successful school and professional development.
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