Governing teachers by professional development: state programmes for continuing professional development in Sweden since 1991

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to analyse how teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) contributes to the government of the teaching profession. This is done by examining the CPD initiatives organized by two Swedish national educational agencies since 1991 involving the school subjects of Swedish (standard language education) and mathematics. Four programmes of professional development are identified in the investigated material, each motivated by specific conceptions of teachers and professional development. One important trend is that agency engagement in teachers’ CPD and school development has increased over time and that CPD programmes have become more prescriptive and elaborate in their use of evaluations. While this may result in a more standardized and centrally governed teaching profession, centrally governed initiatives could also provide teachers with professional arenas for developing ideas without being influenced by local school management.