This paper is concerned with the value positions and perspectives that newly qualified teachers in three national contexts have identified as central to their professional identity. This examination takes place against the background of globalisation theories that argue there is convergence within the teaching profession (e.g. Ball, 2004; Chappell, 1998; Furlong et al, 2000). The paper is based on a grounded analysis of interview data with thirty-two teachers from Norway, Germany and England from the end of their teacher training and throughout their first two years as qualified teachers. The study achieves this by showing how the professional values of these newly qualified teachers are mediated in different ways through the situatedness of key values surrounding becoming a teacher. In so doing it emphasises the role the institutional setting and individual agency play within professional identity formation in ways that other writers have ignored when addressing theories of globalisation. Whilst recognising the difficulties in making generalisations from interview data, insights gained from examining interviews from teachers coming from the social democratic traditions of Norway (Esping-Anderson, 1990), the ‘corporatist welfare’ regime seen in Germany (Jones, 2001) and the more individualised, market-led approach to education adopted in England (Stephens et al, 2004) will provide contexts and settings for a fruitful exploration of some of the dynamics behind the deconstruction of teachers’ values. The content of these interviews reveal some important similarities and differences between the teaching profession in the three countries under examination. By focussing on teachers’ values these aspects of similarity and difference, convergence and divergence between the three systems will be used to focus on generic as well as culturally specific issues and will be discussed in relation to one another and to other research findings. In so doing I pose the following three research questions: 1. What values do ‘becoming’ teachers hold in relation to their proposed occupation? 2. What similarities and differences in teachers’ values are evident in the three national settings under examination? 3. What part is played by national pedagogic traditions, national policy contexts and institutional settings in the changing values of newly qualified teachers? This paper has been theoretically and methodologically framed by questions related to globalisation and the work of Derek Layder (1993; 1994; 1998).

Drawing on the work of Layder, I adopt an analytical framework that acknowledges some of the ‘macro’ large scale structural processes that can influence the professional lives of teachers while simultaneously addressing the ‘micro’ small-scale individual actions and meanings important to me as a qualitative researcher and teacher. Three groups of teachers (thirteen Norwegian, ten German and nine English) have been interviewed three times (with the exception of two teachers) during the course of two years making a total of ninety-two interviews. The method of data collection adopted can best be described as a form of guided/semi-structured interview. My interview technique involved giving the candidate thirteen separate cards with single concepts or phrases on each card. The candidate was then asked to choose five of the cards and talk about them while the conversation was taped.

The analysis of the data from this small sample group shows Norwegian teachers being powerfully constructed around ‘friend’ and ‘carer’. The German Gymnasium teacher is being constructed as a ‘subject expert’ and ‘benign authoritarian’. In England teachers in the sample are being constructed as a ‘carer’ and ‘strong authoritarian’. Throughout these interviews we see how the dominant values in these different societies that construct the role of the teacher are then played off against the individual values of teachers as they gain experience. As such we see the way in which these teachers are both positioned, and position themselves by the variety of values shaping what it is to be a teacher in the different countries under examination as well as the specific school type and age ranges involved. These values may or may not necessarily match with national values, expectations and assumptions about the role of the teacher.