Teacher shortage in Sweden : time to take action?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Teacher shortage in Sweden: time to take action?

In Sweden, the lack of teachers is a national challenge and a societal problem, and the difference between supply and demand for teacher students will increase until 2035. Today, only 7 out of 10 teachers in compulsory school have certification and the variation between schools and regions is great. The overall aim of this article is to explore and analyse the current state of teacher shortage in Sweden. Document analysis was used for reviewing, evaluating and analysing documents, and constructionist thematic analysis was adopted. The results show that there are many different, overlapping or similar factors behind the Swedish teacher shortage and are related to reforms, retention and recruitment. Several curriculum and teacher education reforms have changed and deteriorating work environments and have led to many dropouts for the profession. Low status and the constant poor picture the media portray of Swedish schools and teachers have a strong impact on Sweden’s teacher shortage. Further, political reforms on communalization, decentralization, teacher certification and privatization of schools have changed the structural conditions. Therefore, we call for a change in the attitude towards the teaching profession. Thus, this article provides insights for teachers, teacher educators, policy makers and other stakeholders on the national and international level

Den allvarliga lärarbristen i Sverige - hur kunde detta hända och vad kan vi göra?

I denna artikel redovisas troliga orsaker till den omfattande lärarbristen i Sverige och möjligheter att lösa den på längre sikt. Data är baserat på en omfattande litteraturöversikt och en webbundersökning. Den teoretiska förankringen återfinns i tre styrningsteorier och dess konsekvenser för det studerade området. Resultatet visar att lärarbristen kan spåras minst 50 år tillbaka i tiden och att orsakerna är många och komplexa, exempelvis många olika reformer, försämrade villkor, låg status för yrket och New Public Management som styrningsfilosofi. Möjligheterna att lösa problemen på lång sikt är flera: högre löner, bättre arbetsvillkor, stärkt professionsidentitet, högre status samt flexibla vägar att studera till lärare.

The use of digital technologies in a 1:1 laptop initiative : The parent perspective

The use of digital technologies is now a natural part of schoolwork in many schools. The use of digital technologies and the conditions for technology-enhanced learning and school development were studied in two schools, an upper-secondary school and a compulsory school, over a period of 3 years, exploring the student, teacher, school leader, and school perspectives. In this small study, two surveys (N = 26; N = 17) were used to provide further insights into the compulsory school, by exploring the parent perspective of a 1:1 laptop initiative. Laptop use in the classroom was seen as a potential pedagogical tool for structure and support in learning activities, student responsibility for schoolwork, and issues of digital equity. Challenges included increased laptop use, difficulties regarding insight into and monitoring of schoolwork and homework, students’ focus on schoolwork in the classroom environment, and physical aspects. The results show that the parent perspective provides important insights for teachers, school leaders, and school organizers that may help support students’ learning through the use of digital technologies in the classroom

Teaching With Digital Textbooks : Possibilities And Challenges From The Teacher Perspective

An increasing amount of students’ and teachers’ work in the classroom involves digital technologies such as tablets and laptop computers. In this preliminary study, the use of digital textbooks in the classroom is explored through interviews with two teachers at an independent upper secondary vocational school. Both teachers use digital textbooks in their teaching and express difficulties in having time to review digital textbooks and supporting student work in the classroom. At the same time, the teachers report possibilities to individualise learning activities for students, providing structure for students as well as increasing accessibility to the textbooks during non-school hours

Pojkars och flickors brinnande intressen : En analys av 10 elevtexter ur ett genusperspektiv

The main purpose of this study is to analyze texts written by pupils during the national test in the subject Swedish for grade 9 in order to identify and illustrate how they have met the instructions for the writing task including genre. The texts have been analyzed using Palmér & Östlund-Stjärnegårdh’s (2005) model for student text analysis. This model has been supplemented by studying word and sentence length, as well as indexes for level of readability (LIX) and word variation (OVIX) in order to illustrate possible differences in a gender perspective. The results of this study are in line with previous research, as the girls’ texts are longer and more descriptive, while the boys’ texts are shorter and show a wider range of word variation. The pupils have succeeded in fulfilling the genre and have to a large extent met the task instructions, producing communicative and engaging writing. However, the results of the analysis would have further improved and developed the texts

Supporting teachers’ task design processes. Exploring an exemplary case of the use of the activity checklist

The use of digital technologies continues to increase in classrooms. For teachers, this involves an increased focus on the task design process for supporting student outcomes when using these technologies. Using the Activity Theory based Evaluation Version of the Activity Checklist as a theoretical framework, this paper explores an exemplary case of the use of the Activity Checklist through the analysis of a classroom task from the perspective of the teacher task design process. The results showed that the Activity Checklist as a framework was fruitful to capture and study the teacher design process as activities, illustrating important aspects in designing tasks for student work. It is concluded that the use of the Activity Checklist may support teachers’ task design processes for motivating and supporting student outcomes related to the use of digital technologies. Further, the use of Activity Checklist can help to identify potential issues in the task design process from the teacher perspective, improve practitioners’ work and in turn provide guiding principles for educational development.

Conditions for Technology Enhanced Learning and Educational Change : a case study of a 1:1 initiative

The uptake and use of digital technologies continues to increase in schools throughout the world. In many schools the uptake and use of digital technologies takes place in One-to-One (1:1) initiatives in which teachers and students have their own laptops. In this thesis the uptake and use of digital technologies is studied from the student, teacher and school leader perspectives in order to through this gain knowledge regarding the conditions for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and educational change in K-12 schools. In the Unos Umeå research project the uptake and use of digital technologies in two schools, an upper secondary school and a compulsory school, was studied. A research design involving a case study approach (Yin, 2003, 2009) was used to study a 1:1 initiative. The methods of data collection were surveys, interviews and classroom observations. To explore, identify and describe conditions for TEL and educational change the data collected were used to map the initial expectations regarding the uptake and use of digital technologies from the start of the initiative as well as to follow the development of teaching and learning activities related to the uptake and use of digital technologies in the 1:1 classroom over a period of two years. The Ecology of Resources Model (Luckin, 2010) was used as a theoretical framework including the use of the concept of filters. Regarding the conditions for TEL, the results show that the uptake and use of digital technologies provides possibilities for new forms of teaching and learning in the 1:1 classroom. Students reported increased motivation, engagement and variation in schoolwork. Teachers described new forms of teaching as well as possibilities for collaboration, sharing of materials and continued professional development. For school leaders possibilities were found in collaboration, administrative support and follow-up of students and teachers, creating a unified vision of the work with digital technologies, and collaboration and sharing within the schools as an ecology of resources. The challenges seen from the student, teacher and school leader perspectives were related to use, technical support and optionality. If the possibilities are to be achieved, there is a need for continued professional development for teachers and school leaders. Further, clear directives through policy will be of importance. In the short term, the practical implications of the uptake and use of digital technologies, specifically in 1:1 initiatives, seem to be strongly connected to sustainability in schools. In the long term, if sustainable conditions for TEL and educational change in the 1:1 classroom can be created and upheld, the practical implications may for example be teachers’ improved skills to integrate a thought-through student use of laptops in their teaching practices and an increase in equality of digital competence between students, between schools and between classrooms in the same school