Four Nordic Contexts This paper deals with the question of how the restructuring of educational systems in the Nordic countries affect education as well as what it means to be a teacher. It is based on results from the project "Restructuring in education; reform policy and teacher professionalism in different Nordic contexts" in which the construction of the 'New Teacher' in the Nordic countries is described and analysed. According to several scholars in the field the consequence of restructuring is a growing instrumentalism. Teaching is said to be increasingly managerial in nature, both as teachers are managed, and in turn, themselves manage others. This is, however, more a traditionalist than an obvious argument. Our analysis shows different alternatives in how the state regulates and governs the teachers. Our ambition has been to qualify the discussion by more sensitive, nuanced and contextual descriptions of what is going on. In the paper we will relate the results from the policy analysis to an analysis of teacher interviews concerning how they experience the changes during the 1990s.