Abstract
In Sweden, and most Western countries, pervasive neoliberal policies have dramatically transformed the entire education sector in a matter of decades. As teacher educators, we have experienced how neoliberal currents have pushed Swedish teacher education towards a teacher training paradigm which may risk undermining the foundations for professional judgement. Moreover, the Bologna Process and the introduction of New Public Management have had significant consequences for what it means to be a teacher educator. In this study, we present our everyday experiences of being teacher educators, immersed in a teacher education culture in Sweden which has evolved under the pressures of neoliberalism. To address these complex lived experiences we engaged in a phenomenological first-person account. Three main themes emerged from an analysis of lived experience descriptions: (a) Alignment Slaves; (b) Audit Puppets; (c) Techno Phobes. These themes reflect different lived dimensions of being teacher educators confronted with neoliberal agendas. The paper concludes with a call for resistance to bring about change within teacher education.
Highlights
Teacher education in Sweden today is quite different from past programs that shaped us as teacher educators
The anecdotes shared in this article show that the neoliberal turn in Swedish teacher education has substantial consequences for the fundamental structure of a teacher educator’s lifeworld
The practices that have emerged in the wake of the Bologna Process (Baldwin, 2013) and the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) (Askling & Stensaker, 2002) bring about significant spatial (e.g. “naughty corners;” “crime scenes;” “competition arenas”), bodily (e.g. “submissive nods;” “squeaky voices;” “trembling bodies”), temporal (e.g. “false sense of ‘ready’ courses;” “never-ending documentation and administration;” “outdated professional identities”), and relational experiences (e.g. “authoritarian managers and coordinators;” “betrayed colleagues and students;” “incriminating technology promoters”)
Summary
Teacher education in Sweden today is quite different from past programs that shaped us as teacher educators. The implementation of the Bologna Process (Baldwin, 2013) and the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) (Askling & Stensaker, 2002) have influenced holistically the context of how teacher educators prepare Swedish teachers These politically driven reforms in higher education have resulted in governmental control over curriculum, pedagogy, assessment practices, and management policies. During the Swedish Folk-Home reform period, teacher education was transformed to provide a cadre of new professionals with the knowledge and values of a progressive pedagogy, suited for modern schools and times (Beach, 2011; Beach & Bagley, 2013). We aim to offer phenomenological descriptions of what it means to be a teacher educator in the neoliberal era
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