Being suitable or unsuitable to a work-integrated teacher education program

policy discourses of teacher competences in the admission and employment practice of prospective teacher students

Abstract

In recent years, the political intentions in Sweden have put forth the parallel aim to increase the number of teachers to schools, together with more student teachers to teacher education – all, whilst wanting to make sure that said teachers and student teachers are the ‘right’ qualified ones. Two reforms that clearly manifest these objectives and give a direction of how to achieve these goals are; firstly, the possibility for suitability assessment during the admission process to teacher education (SFS 2020:881), secondly the goal to increase the number of work-integrated teacher education programs (Government, 2019, 2020).

This study takes its departure in these political intentions and reforms by examining one such alternative admission process to one of these work-integrated teacher education programs. In the examined process, representatives from both school unit and teacher education assess the applicant’s suitability for partaking in teacher education, and employment as a teacher in one of their units. The empirical material consists of the assessment discussions that take place after the interviews with the applicants to the work-integrated teacher education program.

The results of the study show a consistent picture regarded what is constructed as suitable teacher competence, and necessary competence requirements to start a work-integrated teacher education program. Furthermore, this suitability construction has great consistency with historical discourses about teacher competence. The results also show a clear economic rationality regarding who is assessed as suitable or unsuitable to this kind of work-integrated teacher education, and why some applicants are selected and others not. Finally, the article also problematizes the implications that these practices might have, both from an individual and a societal perspective, and in relation to political intentions.