Teachers’ Emphases on General Educational Goals: a study of Norwegian teachers

Abstract

Teachers’ emphases on six general educational goals were analysed in two different samples separated by two years. A majority of the teachers (about 80%) reported having a high emphasis on both school achievement and more social or developmental goals. Considerably less emphasis was placed on social equalization and the goal of making the school ‘a nice place to be’. The results were very similar in both the samples, and they were fairly stable across the two time points. Individual differences in teachers’ goal emphases were not related to demographic characteristics such as age, sex and work experience. The results suggest that teachers’ goal emphases are, to a considerable extent, the result of professional socialization. Further, several classroom characteristics were basically unrelated to individual differences in teachers’ goal emphases. Some possible explanations of this lack of relationships are discussed. Two distinct main profiles were identified, and we report some relationships between profile membership and classroom characteristics for a subsample of teachers.