Teacher Professionalism and Curricular Change - the Tension between Governance, Control and Professionalism in School

Abstract

Through looking at the process of Norwegian curricular change from the 1990’s reforms till today, we discuss how the different curricula in different ways affect the possibilities teachers have to act as professional agents in the classroom. Using Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogical discourse and how knowledge produced at the micro level, the level of pedagogical research and practice, we discuss how knowledge gets transformed and recontextualised as it becomes part of the curriculum, the ‘official field’ in Bernstein’s terms, and instead acts as mechanisms for controlling the teachers’ practices. In this paper we argue that curricular change affects the teachers’ potential for professional and autonomous action in the classroom. Furthermore, we point to the implications this has for teacher education, and the need for giving the students the competency to transcend and critically act and reflect on the implications the curricula have for their future teacher professionalism.