Yrkesetik för lärare och behovet av professionsförankring

Resumé

History shows that teachers’ educational and trade-union work is not sprung from one, but several parallel traditions and activities. It is therefore reasonable to assume that teachers in different types of learning practices act on different teacher rationalities and professional tasks. Yet teachers’ ethical principles are formulated as if the teacher group is homogenous. In this article we want to make an education historical sketch of the emergence of different teaching traditions. Using examples from prior research on teachers, we also want to show how the different traditions have generated different teacher rationalities, which are relevant even today. Given this history, we claim that specific areas of knowledge have been overshadowed in a process of generalization in trade union and educational activities. These areas of knowledge are particularly important in the debate on teachers’ professional ethics.