For decades the kindergarten and primary schools has been serviced by untrained staff in many rural areas of Scandinavia (Boelskov 1987, 1989, Brekke 2000). Thus the Scandinavian countries provide special programs for the facilitation of teacher training of experienced, but untrained staff. Some programs are based upon economical support for joining an ordinary teacher training (Brekke 2004); others are based upon different forms of in-service- training. (Næss 1998) When an untrained teacher joins an ordinary teacher training class, she some times feels uneasy and standing out like a sore thump, as she is in another phase of life and more experienced than her classmates (Boelskov in Brekke et al. 2007). Very often she also feels there is a provokingly huge gab between the theories taught in her training and the realities of her old classroom – and all too often she flies back to her old role as an untrained teacher (Boelskov 1987). Therefore an in-service-training program, where the student joins a class of equals often has greater success in making the students accomplish the training. (Sjövoll et al.2007) This has been commonly known in and outside Scandinavia for a decade and many have described the impact of the in-service-training on the student (Jarvis 1999). But few have described the impact of this particular type of students upon the teacher training (Jenssen in Brekke et al 2007, Boelskov in Brekke et al 2007). It is the aim of this presentation to discuss the meta-theoretical changes in the Scandinavian discourse of education. I see a wave-like movement from a normative to a descriptive educational meta-theory in the decades of late 20th century, and a beginning of a new wave from descriptive towards reflexive educational meta-theory. This is partly due to the in-service-training student being so deeply rooted in her practical teaching, that the teaching of her forced a new conception of educational theory upon the university collages and the authors of literature for teacher training.

Casestudy, litterature study

The narrative understanding of education behind much educational literature from Rousseau/Pestalozzi and onwards was, in Scandinavia, more or less forgotten in favor of scientific explanations from a more descriptive concept of educational theory. When the experienced, but untrained teacher then rejects the descriptional theory she is taught at college, her teachers turns to a reflective concept of educational theory, witch again have consequences for his teaching in general.