This edited volume explores the idea that educational success in Scandinavian countries can be attributed to the inherent connectedness of teacher ethics and teaching quality, providing inspiration to teachers and school systems outside Scandinavia.
Acknowledging that Scandinavian school systems are known for mirroring the welfare systems and democratic societies with respect for both institutions and individuals, this book explores new educational demands, possibilities, and research developments taking place in Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden that place the education system, and teachers’ professional development and identities, under pressure. Chapters address teacher ethics and quality in relation to topics such as the dialogical teacher, democratic teaching, parental collaboration, and the ethics of classroom management to inform non-Scandinavian, international school systems and teacher education initiatives.
Discussing current developments in the Scandinavian school systems and the emerging educational ideas and practices within them, this book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students studying teachers and teacher education, moral and values education, and teacher identities more broadly. It will also be useful to policymakers and teacher educators involved with teachers’ professional development more broadly.
1. Introduction. A Scandinavian Perspective on Teacher and Teaching Quality and Teacher Ethics. Part 1: Society 2. Redefining teacher quality in the context of increased accountability in Norway: Professional ethics ‘as practiced’. 3. Growing external influence on teacher thinking and practice: policies, governances, and discourses. 4. Teacher qualities that make teachers stay in the profession: Addressing teacher shortage in Nordic countries with ethics of care. 5. Teacher professional ethics, teaching and Quality in Context: A Commentary. Part 2: School 6. Teachers' ethic of play care. 7. Epochal key questions for the reformed Danish teacher education. 8. Combining a safe psychosocial environment and professionalism – Norwegian teachers’ responsibility and accountability in enacting the Education Act. 9. Ethical and Moral Perspectives in Leading Schools. 10. Why does a teacher remain at a high-risk school? Reflections on ethics and teaching quality in a culturally diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged school in Denmark. 11. Ethical issues in free play, teacher training, education law, school leadership and staff turnover: A commentary. Part 3: Classroom 12. The teacher’s primary responsibility is the uniqueness of every child. The radically learner-sensitive pedagogy of Anna Sethne. 13. Teaching with tolerance. Students’ surprisingly positive participation in an out-of-school learning environment. 14. Enacting Professional Responsibility in Literacy Coaching – A Sociomaterial Perspective. 15. Educational Ethics to support good teaching amongst dilemmas of diversity: A commentary. 16. Afterword: Teacher Ethics and Teaching Quality in Scandinavian Schools: New Reflections, Future Challenges, and Global Impacts.
Lars Emmerik Damgaard Knudsen is Associate Professor in Curriculum Research, Danish School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, Denmark. Merete Wiberg is Associate Professor in Philosophy of Education, Danish School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, Denmark. Karen Bjerg Petersen is Associate Professor Emerita in General Education, Danish School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, Denmark. Lisbeth Haastrup is Associate Professor in Curriculum Research, Danish School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, Denmark.
