Educating competitive teachers for a competitive nation?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss recent Swedish teacher education investments and reforms, and the work of teachers in response to globalisation within the context of modern social imaginaries. I briefly outline Charles Taylor’s concept of modern social imaginaries, and I examine the character of recent Swedish teacher education, teacher education reform and the work expected of teachers. I conclude that economic imaginaries are given primacy: aims and reforms are primarily linked to economic imaginaries of the competitive nation; economic norms are given primacy in the governance of schools and education; globalised and economic standards of quality and success are increasing in importance; and the concern about how to make teacher education an attractive career investment for groups the state finds important to attract to teaching is held to be vital for the quality in outcomes of education. I critically discuss the underlying globalist imaginary I think underpins Swedish education reform in the global era, and transform the teacher into a scientifically grounded economic agent for market integration and the competitive edge of the Swedish nation. I address the question of whether the modern social imaginary of democracy and citizenship should be restored and cosmopolitised in education and teacher education and in relation to the expected work of teachers rather than be reduced to or transformed into economic worldviews and agency in the era of globalisation.