Structural constraints on teachers' work

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with spatial inequality in education, and it compares the work experiences of teachers in one rural municipality against those from another urban municipality. The present analysis is built on qualitative interviews with teachers and participant observation in one rural and one urban municipality in Northern Norway in 2018. The Norwegian educational system is centralized in terms of power distribution, with highly unified educational laws, curriculum and funding models. The uniformity of national policy did not necessarily result in similar working conditions for all teachers: among the rural teachers, insufficient school funding resulted in a shortage of equipment, and activities incurring extra costs were scrapped. Teachers in the urban case municipality experienced misplaced detailed involvement in their work from the municipality, which questioned the teachers’ own professional judgement, whereas the rural teachers experienced a lack of involvement from their municipality. There was also an uneven supply of qualified teachers, causing periodic problems for the rural municipality.