Employability of Swedish Teacher Student Alumni

Author(s):

Inger Erixon ArremanMagnus Strömgren

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 09D, Evaluation on Quality in Teacher Education; Teacher Retention and Transition from Teacher Education to Professional Practice

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

10:30-12:00

Room:

A1 332

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

In recent years, “employability” has become an increasingly central concept in higher education, in no small part since it constitutes an important aspect of the Bologna Process. The project “Teachers’ employability” is a project carried out on behalf of the Faculty of Teacher Education at Umeå University – one of the major providers of teacher education in Sweden – and is a part of a broader university effort to evaluate and increase employability. The aim of the project is to examine the situation of the university’s teacher students after graduation, as well as to find out how the former students and their employers view their education. The study was based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Data were collected in three sets of studies, including i) the longitudinal individual database ASTRID, ii) a questionnaire and interview study directed to school leaders, com-plemented with analysis of evaluations and reports of the 2001 teacher education programme, iii) a web-based questionnaire study directed to two cohorts of teach-ers graduated from Umeå University in the early 2000s. This paper reports findings from the project, focusing on 1) employment situation, income development and mobility patterns of recent alumni (class of 2000), 2) primary employers’ (school leaders) view of the quality and usefulness of the current teacher education curricu-lum, and 3) graduated teachers’ views on their teacher training programme and its usefulness. While employability is generally high, there are significant differences in career paths and income development, depending on for instance type of degree and place of residence. From school leaders’ perspectives the study shows that al-though the current teacher education programme is perceived to have certain gen-eral limitations, it is viewed as more suited for pre-school rather than comprehensive school and gymnasium teacher education. The study also indicates that differing views on knowledge and the quality of a teacher education pro-gramme, can be related to individuals’ educational background. The paper dis-cusses strengths and weaknesses of current teacher education curriculum within a wider context of policy trends of decentralization and deregulation in the western world, particularly noted since the 1990s.

Method

Longitudinal database ASTRID Questionnaires Interviews

Expected Outcomes

While employability is generally high, there are significant differences in career paths and income development, depending on for instance type of degree and place of residence. From school leaders’ perspectives the study shows that although the current teacher education programme is perceived to have certain general limitations, it is viewed as more suited for pre-school rather than comprehensive school and gymnasium teacher education. The study also indicates that school leaders and graduated teachers differing views on knowledge and the quality of a teacher education programme, can be related to individuals’ educational background and teacher orientation. The paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of current teacher education curriculum within a wider context of policy trends of decentralization and deregulation in the western world, particularly noted since the 1990s.

References

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Author Information

Inger Erixon Arreman

Umeå University

Dept of Pre-school and Childhood education, Special Education and Counselling and Guidance

Umeå

186

Magnus Strömgren

Umeå University

Department of Social and Economic Geography