Standards for newly qualified teachers to gain full registration in Australia, Scotland and Sweden are analysed in a comparative perspective regarding the focus and rationales as teacher standards are “neither neutral nor impartial” (Down, 2012, p. 77; cf. Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012; Lim, 2012). NVivo has been used for comparative qualitative content analysis with a focus on the meaning-making entities in the standards. The analysis indicates that the emphasis is mainly on applied learning with references to ‘demonstrate, draw on, know how to, be able to use’. The applied focus is on the performance of both teachers and their students alike. The overall tenet is that teaching and learning standards promote technical approaches towards teaching and learning, hence the emphasis on competence. This could potentially result in coaching practices being adopted to facilitate quantifying when standards have been achieved. A standard could equally be read as a goal (to be achieved). Another key finding is the similarity of Scotland’s (in terms of language usage and emphasis) and Australia’s teacher standards. Neither standards document appears to have anything that differentiates it culturally or that caters for the specific needs of the country in a globalised world. The Swedish standards, however, appear to have different and nuanced standards which reflect cultural differences and are connected to its national needs. With regards to ICT-skills, these are most explicitly addressed in the Australian standards (sections 2.6, 3.4 and 4.5), are referred to in the Scottish standards (sections 2.1.4, 3.1.3 and 3.2) while being implicit in the Swedish standards.

References

Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How Schools Do Policy: Policy Enactments in Secondary Schools London & New York: Routledge. Down, B. (2012). Reconceptualising Teacher Standards: Authentic, Critical and Creative, pp.63-80. In B. Down and J. Smyth (eds.) Critical Voices in Teacher Education, Explorations of Educational Purpose. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. Lim, L. (2012) Ideology, class and rationality: a critique of Cambridge International Examinations’ Thinking Skills Curriculum, Cambridge Journal of Education 42 (4) pp.481-495.