Deconstructing autonomy: The case of principals in the North of Europe

2023. Wieland Wermke (et al.). European Educational Research Journal

Article

Principal autonomy has been identified as an important ingredient in effective and healthy schools. However, little is known about the various dimensions of the phenomenon and how it takes form in different contexts. This article presents an analytical device contributing to further understand the complex nature of principal autonomy. The device follows the seminal work of Richard Ingersoll on autonomy in school organisations operationalised as decision-making and control. Moreover, we put forward a multidimensional device to organise decisions and control in several schooling domains: educational, social, developmental and administrative. By exemplifying the device on principals’ perceptions of autonomy in the very North of Sweden, Norway and Finland, we can reveal important differences between the three Nordic neighbouring cases. Related to these reforms, principals’ work can be compared in terms of different grades of complexity and risk, with corresponding consequences for their autonomy.

Education Policy and Education Practice Nexuses

2023. Tine Prøitz, Petter Aasen, Wieland Wermke. From Education Policy to Education Practice, 1-16

Chapter

This introductory chapter addresses the complex interrelations between education policy and education practice developed under new ways of governance. It highlights education nexuses as a concept of its own right and discusses what constitutes the contemporary nexuses in education of today. Based on the cases of education nexuses presented in the volume the chapter summarizes four central characteristics of education nexuses and raise the issue of the need to re-consider how we study education policy and practice in the interface between structure and agency for the future developments in education.

Framing curriculum making: bureaucracy and couplings in school administration

2023. Wieland Wermke, Ronny Freier, Daniel Nordholm. Journal of Curriculum Studies

Article

This article aims to undertake a comparative investigation of school administration to understand further the frames of curriculum making. School administration is an under-illuminated aspect of curriculum research. The paper commences from the notion that, in mass education, a school system is operationalized by many schools, which are coupled to each other and to political decisions. Here is the curriculum vital. Building on the classic work of Stefan Hopmann, a curriculum is part of the administrational structure of the school system. The Article suggests several categories that can describe the nature and function of school administration in various contexts. There are external matters of schooling, such as school buildings, school food, etc. and internal matters of schooling, such as curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation. Individual schools and school administration are coupled via licences, and programmatic, professional, and procedural supervision. The article employs these categories with a comparison of a decentralized Sweden and a centralized Germany. The comparison investigated 290 Swedish municipality school administrations and 45 state education authorities in 4 German federal states. In this comparison many interesting similarities between both contexts can be hightligthed.

From Education Policy to Education Practice: Unpacking the Nexus

2023. .

Book (ed)

Juridification and regulative failures: The complicated implementation of international law into national schools

2023. Ronny Freier, Ulrike Thams, Wieland Wermke. Journal of education policy, 1-22

Article

This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law in different national and historical contexts. With this, aspects of juridification as a process in education policy can be illuminated. In this regard, we suggest crucial aspects regarding juridification in public education: a focus on regulative failures in juridification processes, juridification's contexts, the mandate for putting it into action, the allocation of resources, and finally, its objective and subjective rights dimensions, i.e. how an individual can claim rights within the machinery of public education.

Power and inclusion. German and Swedish special educators’ roles and work in inclusive schools

2023. Wieland Wermke, Inken Beck. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1-13

Article

This article presents a comparative interview study (N = 45) with Swedish and German special educators working in inclusive school settings in order to gain an understanding of how inclusive education is operationalized by the provision of special education needs (SEN) support; and how both aspects are conditioned by nation-specific particularities. Drawing on our interview analyses, we suggest an analytical device for examining and comparing the provision of SEN support in school organizations from a comparative perspective. The device is a 9-dimensional matrix, understanding the phenomenon in terms of three levels (individual, group, organizational) related to three domains (educational, social, administrative). Employing this matrix, we explain national differences in operationalizing inclusive schools. Compared with Germany, in Sweden, special educators have much more power in the inclusive school, and significantly more important decisions regarding SEN are made at an organizational level, and not only regarding individual students in need of special support.

Principal’s autonomy and control in Sweden before and during COVID 19 - an explorative study

2023. Emma Ågren, Daniel Nordholm, Wieland Wermke. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 1-13

Article

Despite a growing body of research, there is an urgent need for studies on principals’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that Sweden, unlike most other countries, decided to keep schools open during the pandemic there is plenty to learn from the Swedish case. This article explores how Swedish principals experienced their autonomy before the pandemic and whether and how the experience of autonomy changed over the course of the pandemic. Data from 14 urban principals were integrated in order to analyse principals’ autonomy within four domains of their work. The results indicate that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their work, both before and during the pandemic. At the same time, they experienced a significant degree of control from state and local municipal level. The article adds important pieces to the current body of research by showing how autonomy and control impinge upon principals’ work and leadership in times of crisis.

Reading Towards a School for All? Comparing Course Literature Lists in Academic Swedish Special Education Teacher Training Between the 1980s and 2010s

2023. Heidi Wimmer, Gabriella Höstfält, Wieland Wermke. Teacher Education as an Ongoing Professional Trajectory, 143-159

Chapter

This chapter focuses on the empirical value of course literature in order to understand paradigm shifts in teacher education over time. In order to show this, the example of Swedish special education teachers is presented. This case is of international interest since the Swedish school systems have been highly committed to international trends. These trends are among others, the inclusion movement, i.e. the making of a school for all in the spirit of the Salamanca declaration of 1994, and the impact of PISA since the 2000s, related to paradigms of standardised student performance measurement of all students. By making qualitative and quantitative content analyses of course literature lists since the 1970s, we show that there are indeed significant shifts in what prospective professionals in school are expected to be. In the case presented in this chapter, it can be shown how special education teachers until the 1990s had a profound medical focus on schooling and disability in their training. Today, they are by their academic training more expected to be expert teachers for all children. Moreover, their reading includes today much focus on scientific method. This illustrates that this professional group is expected today to produce own systematic knowledge.

Understanding Education Reform Policy Trajectories by Analytical Sequencing

2023. Wieland Wermke, Forsberg Eva. From Education Policy to Education Practice, 59-73

Chapter

This chapter exemplifies a strategy for understanding and examining Policy and Practice Nexuses concerning education reform trajectories. Education policy-making is an increasingly complex process, mostly neither linear and rational nor unidirectional. However, to understand such processes, we advocate complexity reduction through analytical distinctions, sequencing, and entity-relationship-thinking. While policy-practice nexuses are conflated in the reality of public education, our analytical approach must produce a somewhat linear, sequential understanding. Drawing on this argument, we propose a model which displays education reform trajectories and explore the model in terms of empirical objects. With the distinction between entities and relationships, we facilitate analytical definitions in Policy-Practice Research regarding what affects what and how it does so. Relationships are units of re-contextualization, process, and transfer, which demand the presence of at least two entities. Moreover, Time becomes an analytical device. Each unit conditions the next. The prior development of ideas always conditions the current context of the analyses. Finally, we advocate comparative education reform policy analyses. While selecting (national and sectorial), cases become critical. Comparisons may uncover the different layers of universality and particularity.

Att bygga en friskola: om skolors organisation och lärares autonomi

2022. Anne Montelius, Wieland Wermke, Gabriella Höstfält.

Book

Comparing principal autonomy in time and space: modelling school leaders' decision making and control

2022. Wieland Wermke (et al.). Journal of Curriculum Studies 54 (6), 733-750

Article

This article presents the development and application of a model that can be utilized to compare the autonomy of principals in various historical and national contexts. Drawing on former conceptual work on autonomy in education, the model conceptualizes principal autonomy as two-dimensional. The first dimension is the decision making expected from principals, manifested on a continuum of being restricted or extended. The second dimension is the control imposed on principals, also varying between a restricted or an extended nature. In relation to each other, restricted/extended decision making and control can result in four different governance configurations that impact principals' work complexities. We apply the model for the description of the development of Swedish principals' work conditions over time and for a comparison of the autonomy of Nordic principals. With this endeavour, we demonstrate how historical and nation-specific particularities in educational governance interact with limitations and opportunities of educational leadership. Moreover, we argue that a focus on the autonomy of various stakeholders in schools might be a fertile strategy for further understanding the confusing concept of school autonomy.

In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation

2022. Daniel Nordholm, Wieland Wermke, Maria Jarl. Journal of Educational Administration & History, 1-21

Article

The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals’ autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their decision-making in 2005 and 2012 and also a balanced control from state and municipalities. At the time of the third study in 2019, principals continue to express a rather high degree of autonomy, but this autonomy is now combined with an increased degree of control. However, given the high degree of autonomy, in combination with low degree of conflicts between different stakeholders, the article concludes that the expression ‘in the eye of the storm there is calm’ appears to suit Swedish principals’ decision-making, at least, in the development of decentralisation and re-centralisation.

State, municipality and local community. Exploring principal's autonomy and control in the rural north of Scandinavia

2022. Daniel Nordholm (et al.). Education Inquiry

Article

This article focuses on Nordic school leaders and how rural principals experience autonomy and control in current governance regimes using a sample of principals in the very north of Norway and Sweden as a case. An analysis instrument constituting four different schooling domains (educational; social; developmental; administrative) and the ways in which autonomy and control are perceived within each domain structured the analytical work. The analysis showed that both Norwegian and Swedish principals experience a high degree of autonomy within the four domains. Regarding control, principals of the two countries intimated that control is generally more evident within the educational and administrative domains and less evident within the developmental and particularly within the social domain. Regarding differences between the two countries, Norwegian principals experienced more control from regional and local municipal level compared to their Swedish colleagues. The findings add important pieces to the current body of research on rural principals and school system governance.

Autonomy paradox: Teachers’ perceptions of self-governance across Europe

2021. Wermke Wieland, Maija Salokangas.

Book

What do we mean when we speak about teacher autonomy? How free are teachers to go about their work?

To answer these complex questions the authors asked thousands of teachers in four national contexts: in Finland, Ireland, Germany and Sweden, what they think autonomy looks like. The resulting book examines teacher autonomy theoretically and empirically, comparing teachers’ perceptions of their professional autonomy. Utilizing a mixed method approach the authors combine data from a large-scale questionnaire study, teacher interviews, lesson and meeting observations, and workshops that brought together teachers from the four participating countries. All this engagement with teachers revealed that simply increasing their professional autonomy might not lead to desired outcomes. This is because, from a teachers’ point of view, increased decision-making capacity brings further complexity and risk to their work, and it may instead lead to anxiety, self-restriction, and the eventual rejection of autonomy. These surprising conclusions challenge the increasingly orthodox view that increased autonomy is a desirable end in itself. This is what the authors call the autonomy paradox.

Integration, fragmentation, and complexity: Governing the teaching profession and the Nordic model

2021. Wieland Wermke, Tine Proitz. Schoolteachers and the Nordic Model, 216-228

Chapter

This chapter compares the governance of teachers in Sweden, Norway, and Germany. Drawing on descriptions of the different countries’ governance regimes from a sociohistorical perspective, the chapter shows how nation-specific particularities have and continue to shape their respective teaching professions. Educational reforms in these countries have confronted teachers with processes of integration and fragmentation, which have had an impact on the complexity of the respective systems. From this perspective, a challenge is posed to the idea that a common Nordic ideology of universalism and equality, where education prevails as a central part of the public welfare system, has led to a uniform Nordic teaching profession.

The Conceptual and Methodological Construction of a ‘Global’ Teacher Identity through TALIS

2021. Armend Tahirsylaj (et al.). Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal (C·E·P·S Journal) 11 (3), 75-95

Article

The present article investigates the construction of a ‘global’ teacher identity by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the introduction of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in 2008. We critically examine TALIS-related conceptual frameworks, survey questionnaires and statistically driven scales of teachers’ professional attitudes internationally. A theoretical, education-based framing of didaktik and curriculum pedagogical traditions is used to discuss conceptual bias in TALIS conceptual frameworks as well as the sociologically based idea of TALIS as a pedagogic device used as a technology to gain symbolic power for making the teachers of tomorrow. Methodologically relying on document analysis, we examine TALIS 2008, 2013 and 2018 background documents to highlight the ideologically driven construction of a certain model of effective teachers, and refer to associated TALIS technical reports to examine validity issues in scales that are methodologically and statistically driven in order to increase the robustness of the results. The article identifies biases in the OECD’s construction of a ‘global’ teacher identity that are reflected in TALIS conceptual frameworks and survey questions and statistically justified through associated scales.

The junior cycle reform form a comparative perspective: Assessment as curriculum practice according to Irish, Finnish, and Swedish teachers

2021. Salokangas Maija, Wermke Wieland, Gerry Harvey. Curriculum reform within policy and practice, 209-227

Chapter

The Junior Cycle Reform reduced the significance of a national exam at lower secondary level, by introducing continuous assessment conducted by teachers. Increasing teacher’s role in student assessment was controversial and sparked a national debate concerning the extent to which teachers should be involved in the assessment process. This chapter relates this Irish debate to developments elsewhere; countries that have taken very different approaches to student assessment in recent curriculum reforms. In particular, we compare how second level teachers perceive their role in student assessment in Ireland, Finland and Sweden. This leads us to argue that it is important to understand why similar quality and quantity of decision-making capacity can be perceived differently by teachers working in different contexts. Furthermore we argue that the tension between decisions to be made, how and by whom those decisions are controlled, and associated complexity and risks, create context-specific teacher autonomy mindsets, which constitute how autonomous a national teaching profession perceives itself.

A school for all: Special issue

2020. .

Book (ed)

A special Issue of Nordic Journal of Studies on Education Policy, with contributions of among others, Mel Ainskow, Peder Haug, Michel Knigge, Lise Roll-Petersson, Kajsa Falkner, Christian Ydesen, Daniel Östlund, Thomas Barow.

Unpacking autonomy for empirical comparative investigation

2020. Maija Salokangas, Wermke Wieland. Oxford Review of Education 46 (5), 563-581

Article

Teacher autonomy has been a topic of growing interest over recent decades. However, what teacher autonomy means remains work in progress. Drawing from existing conceptualisations, which consider teacher autonomy as a multidimensional and context-dependent phenomenon this paper presents an analytical device applicable in international comparative studies. The conceptualisation is presented in the form of a matrix, which distinguishes different domains and levels of teacher autonomy. A sample of existing research is then utilised to demonstrate how the matrix can assist in cumulative knowledge building. The article demonstrates how the matrix can be applied, in particular, to empirical comparative research.

‘A school for all’ in the policy and practice nexus: Comparing ‘doing inclusion’ in different contexts: Introduction to the special issue

2020. Wermke Wieland (et al.). Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy 6 (1), 1-6

Article

Autonomie im Lehrerberuf in Deutschland, Finnland und Schweden: Entscheidungen, Kontrolle, Komplexität

2019. Wermke Wieland, David Paulsrud.

Book

Wieland Wermke und David Paulsrud betrachten basierend auf der Grundlage einer Umfrage unter circa 7000 deutschen, 1500 finnischen und 700 schwedischen Lehrer*innen die Autonomie im Lehrerberuf. Die Autoren behandeln Autonomie als mehrdimensionales und in hohem Maße kontextabhängiges Phänomen, bei dem es vor allem darum geht, welche Entscheidungen Lehrkräfte treffen wollen und müssen sowie wie und von wem diese Entscheidungen kontrolliert werden. Konkret bedeutet dies, dass Lehrer*innen für jede Entscheidung, die sie tätigen, auch die Verantwortung übernehmen müssen. Mit mehr Verantwortung steigen gleichzeitig Komplexität und Risiken im Lehrerberuf. Das Hauptargument des Buches ist, dass es bei der Diskussion über Autonomie im Lehrerberuf darum gehen sollte, Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen, die Komplexität und Risiken reduzieren, und somit angstfreie und selbstbestimmte Lehrerarbeit in den Bereichen ermöglichen, in denen Lehrer*innen auch wirklich die wichtigen Entscheidungen treffen können und wollen. Mit Beispielen aus den deutschen, finnischen und schwedischen Bildungssystemen will dieses Buch seinen Beitrag zu der Diskussionen „Wie autonom können und wollen Lehrer sein?“ leisten. Damit richtet es sich sowohl an (angehende) Lehrer*innen als auch an Entscheidungsträger im Bildungsbereich, die Schulstrukturen gestalten.

Internationellt jämförande pedagogik: en introduktion

2019. Barbara Schulte, Wermke Wieland.

Book

Skola och utbildning utformas på olika sätt i olika länder. Samtidigt har globaliseringen blivit en viktig del i hur vi tänker och genomför utbildning. Sverige och andra länder påverkas i allt större utsträckning av globala rankningar av utbildningssystem, såsom PISA-undersökningen. I många utvecklingsländer är utbildning dessutom förknippad med biståndspolitikens villkor. Hur kan vi förstå skillnader och anpassningsprocesser i världens olika utbildningsystem? Varför började man överhuvudtaget att jämföra olika utbildningskontexter och hur genomför man bra forskning om utbildning utifrån ett internationellt jämförande perspektiv? Internationellt jämförande pedagogik vill ge svar på dessa frågor. I bokens första del beskriver författarna forskningsfältet och ger en översyn över olika forskningstraditioner och deras viktigaste metodologiska och teoretiska ingångar. I den andra delen presenterar och kommenterar de fem studier som kan användas som en metodologisk vägledning för hur man kan förstå och själv genomföra internationellt jämförande studier om skola och utbildning. Boken riktar sig dels till studerande inom pedagogik och lärarutbildning på grund- och avancerad nivå, dels till lärare, doktorander och forskare som vill skaffa sig en överblick över internationellt jämförande pedagogisk forskning.

Autonomi och bedömning. Bedömningskulturer utifrån ett komparativt perspektiv

2018. Wermke Wieland. Lärares bedömningsarbete, 129-148

Chapter

Living in an Era of Comparisons: Comparative Research on Policy, Curriculum and Teaching

2018. .

Book (ed)

The articles in this special issue include different perspectives on comparative policy studies with an aim to understand transnational education policies in relation to the logic of national educational systems and to grasp the ongoing reframing of teacher identity and teaching as a result of the policy activities of ‘new’ and coordinated international actors. This special issue aims to contribute to a continued qualified investigation in curriculum issues at the various levels within the public education system, as well as in the international policy movements, affecting public education differently in different nations. A ‘comparative curriculum research’ inspired by theories and methods from comparative education might be helpful in this endeavour.

Living in an era of comparisons: comparative research on policy, curriculum and teaching

2018. Ninni Wahlström, Daniel Alvunger, Wermke Wieland. Journal of Curriculum Studies 50 (5), 587-594

Article

The articles in this special issue include different perspectives on comparative policy studies with an aim to understand transnational education policies in relation to the logic of national educational systems and to grasp the ongoing reframing of teacher identity and teaching as a result of the policy activities of ‘new’ and coordinated international actors. This special issue aims to contribute to a continued qualified investigation in curriculum issues at the various levels within the public education system, as well as in the international policy movements, affecting public education differently in different nations. A ‘comparative curriculum research’ inspired by theories and methods from comparative education might be helpful in this endeavour.

Lärare i spänningsfältet mellan profession och organisation

2018. Wermke Wieland, Fredrik Andréasson. Att bli lärare

Chapter

Förändringar av skolsystemet kan skapa frustration och oro för framtida lärare i frågan om vilken skola som ligger framför dem. Det här kapitlet presenterar ett perspektiv, som ser ständiga förändringar som en inbyggd del av skolsystemet, i vilken lärarprofession och skolans organisation förhandlar om frågan hur den allmänna skolan ska bedrivas.

The Contingent Sense-Making of Contingency: Epistemologies of Change in Comparative Education

2018. Jaakko Kauko, Wermke Wieland. Comparative Education Review 62 (2), 157-177

Article

In this article we set out to broaden the scope of comparative education in relation to change. Following what various scholars have already shown, we argue that the world we are exploring is contingent, as too is comparative research, reflecting particular epistemological perspectives. We use this dual focus on contingency and analyze the differences among epistemological understandings of change in a strategic sample of three theoretical traditions in comparative education: borrowing and lending (specifically cross-national attraction), the world culture approach, and the functional-cum-configurational model. We argue that the borderlines of the different traditions emerge from their different epistemological starting points, relating to how they cope with complexity and resulting in different methodological consequences. We conclude that comparative education should both be more aware of the contingency of its sense-making and bolder in theorizing complex contexts.

Contextualizing Teacher Autonomy in time and space: a model for comparing various forms of governing the teaching profession

2014. Wieland Wermke, Gabriella Höstfält. Journal of Curriculum Studies 46 (1), 58-80

Article

This study aims to develop a model for comparing different forms of teacher autonomy in various national contexts and at different times. Understanding and explaining local differences and global similarities in the teaching profession in a globalized world require conceptions that contribute to further theorization of comparative and international education. Drawing on a governance perspective and building on considerations of curriculum evaluation, the study argues that teacher autonomy is a crucial factor that has to be conceptualized in its national and historical contexts. It presents an examination of the teaching profession from both an institutional and service perspective. In both perspectives, teacher autonomy, framed by curriculum evaluation, can be regarded as both extended and restricted, but not necessarily at the same time. This point of view enables us to discuss different forms of autonomy in relation to each other. To support this idea, the study discusses cases of teachers in various contexts of time and space.

Development and Autonomy: Conceptualising teachers’ continuing professional development in different national contexts

2013. Wieland Wermke.

Thesis (Doc)

This thesis investigates teachers’ perceptions of continuing professional development (CPD) in Germany and Sweden with a questionnaire study comprising a total of 711 mainly lower secondary teachers. Three conceptual terms are elaborated and explained. Teachers act in a CPD marketplace that is constituted by several sources of knowledge which offer opportunities for teachers’ development. How teachers act in the marketplace is a key part of their CPD culture. The study reveals similarities in the two cases regarding the importance of colleagues as well as informal development activities, but there are also significant differences. One the one hand, German teachers can be described as more active in their CPD than their Swedish colleagues in relation to particular aspects of their profession such as assessment, and more suspicious of knowledge from elsewhere, on the other.

In order to understand the differences, I argue for an extended focus on the impact of the national context, in terms of socially and historically significant structures and traditions of the teaching profession. The thesis focuses on a crucial aspect with a particular explanatory value for differing CPD tendencies in various national contexts: Autonomy from a governance perspective. This phenomenon, which does indeed change across time and space, is investigated from a socio-historical perspective in both contexts, building on Margaret Archer’s analytic dualism of structure and agency, and a dual pronged model of teacher autonomy. The latter distinguishes institutional autonomy, regarding legal or status issues, from service autonomy related to the practical issues in schools and classrooms. Since these dimensions can be either extended or restricted, different categories evolve which enable us to understand the differences between the two cases.

Finally, by using the findings on the German and Swedish teaching profession, a theoretical framework is presented that relates the certain forms of teacher autonomy in particular national contexts to likely CPD cultures that teachers share.

Dialog på undantag?: samverkan mellan lärarutbildningen och avnämarna i det svenskspråkiga Finland

2013. Staffan Selander, Wermke Wieland, Geijer Lena.

Report

A question of trustworthiness?: Teachers' perceptions of knowledge sources in the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden

2012. Wieland Wermke. Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (4), 618-627

Article

This article aims to investigate teachers' perception of sources of knowledge in their continuing professional development (CPD). It investigates whether the perceived importance of a source can be related to its trustworthiness. Knowledge sources comprise institutions and colleagues, who produce knowledge for teachers' development. The issues are examined by analysis of questionnaire studies on teachers' CPD with a sample size of 711 teachers in Germany and Sweden. The results show that a knowledge source's trustworthiness is a relevant and significant predictor for its importance in teachers' CPD. However, the national context in which teachers work also has a considerable influence.

Knowledge sources and autonomy: German and Swedish teachers’ continuing professional development of assessment knowledge

2012. Eva Forsberg, Wieland Wermke. Professional Development in Education 38 (5), 741-758

Article

This article presents a comparative study of German and Swedish teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) in relation to student assessment. It investigates the sources teachers use to improve their knowledge about assessment and the relationship this has to different national contexts. Assessment, as well as evaluation, defines what counts as valid knowledge and how this can be measured. As such, assessment is a major focus of teaching and specifies constraints and possibilities for teacher practice in the classroom. Teachers are seen as agents in a regulated CPD marketplace, and within this framework teachers make decisions about the knowledge sources they use to educate themselves about assessment. These choices can be seen as expressions of what they perceive as important and relevant in relation to assessment. We argue that this expression of opinion can contribute to an understanding of teachers’ professional autonomy, especially in relation to their decisions about a crucial aspect of their profession. In this way, we propose a way to conceptualize the impact of the national context on teachers’ CPD.

Continuing professional development in context: Teachers' continuing professional development culture in Germany and Sweden

2011. Wieland Wermke. Professional Development in Education 37 (5), 665-683

Article

This article investigates the continuing professional development (CPD) culture ofteachers, and asks how it is influenced by properties of the school system. Itreports the results of a questionnaire study with 418 secondary teachers fromSweden and Germany. The results show highly significant differences betweenSwedish and German teachers’ practice of and beliefs in teachers’ CPD. Thisimplies a relevant effect of properties of the school system on the teachers’ CPD.The differences are explained by varying perceptions of sources of knowledge forCPD, the influence of different school governance instruments, and differenthistorically developed role definitions of teachers in both countries.

Wieland Wermke

About me

Research projects

Publications

Deconstructing autonomy: The case of principals in the North of Europe

Education Policy and Education Practice Nexuses

Framing curriculum making: bureaucracy and couplings in school administration

From Education Policy to Education Practice: Unpacking the Nexus

Juridification and regulative failures: The complicated implementation of international law into national schools

Power and inclusion. German and Swedish special educators’ roles and work in inclusive schools

Principal’s autonomy and control in Sweden before and during COVID 19 - an explorative study

Reading Towards a School for All? Comparing Course Literature Lists in Academic Swedish Special Education Teacher Training Between the 1980s and 2010s

Understanding Education Reform Policy Trajectories by Analytical Sequencing

Att bygga en friskola: om skolors organisation och lärares autonomi

Comparing principal autonomy in time and space: modelling school leaders' decision making and control

In the eye of the storm? Mapping out a story of principals’ decision-making in an era of decentralisation and re-centralisation

State, municipality and local community. Exploring principal's autonomy and control in the rural north of Scandinavia

Autonomy paradox: Teachers’ perceptions of self-governance across Europe

Integration, fragmentation, and complexity: Governing the teaching profession and the Nordic model

The Conceptual and Methodological Construction of a ‘Global’ Teacher Identity through TALIS

The junior cycle reform form a comparative perspective: Assessment as curriculum practice according to Irish, Finnish, and Swedish teachers

A school for all: Special issue

Unpacking autonomy for empirical comparative investigation

‘A school for all’ in the policy and practice nexus: Comparing ‘doing inclusion’ in different contexts: Introduction to the special issue

Autonomie im Lehrerberuf in Deutschland, Finnland und Schweden: Entscheidungen, Kontrolle, Komplexität

Internationellt jämförande pedagogik: en introduktion

Autonomi och bedömning. Bedömningskulturer utifrån ett komparativt perspektiv

Living in an Era of Comparisons: Comparative Research on Policy, Curriculum and Teaching

Living in an era of comparisons: comparative research on policy, curriculum and teaching

Lärare i spänningsfältet mellan profession och organisation

The Contingent Sense-Making of Contingency: Epistemologies of Change in Comparative Education

Contextualizing Teacher Autonomy in time and space: a model for comparing various forms of governing the teaching profession

Development and Autonomy: Conceptualising teachers’ continuing professional development in different national contexts

Dialog på undantag?: samverkan mellan lärarutbildningen och avnämarna i det svenskspråkiga Finland

A question of trustworthiness?: Teachers' perceptions of knowledge sources in the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden

Knowledge sources and autonomy: German and Swedish teachers’ continuing professional development of assessment knowledge

Continuing professional development in context: Teachers' continuing professional development culture in Germany and Sweden