Ideas of how to teach as well as how to develop a good teacher education have altered from time to time and from place to place (Hopmann, 2007). Significant for the Swedish teacher education of today is a University program divided into many short courses. In the name of evident or scientific knowledge the education is fragmented and its attribute is in line with ideas similar to New Public management (NPM) (Almqvist, 2004). In each new course the students move to a new institution and they are encountered with new teachers and new contents from different faculties. However, the overall aim of teacher education is seldom discussed between faculties or between courses.

In this study the concept of NPM is contrasted by the concept of Bildung in relation to teacher education. The concept of Bildung can be associated with the concept of life long learning or cultivation in the English language. However, as the word Bildung has not got an exact synonym in the English language, it will be called Bildung in this text (Hopman, 2007). Bildung is traditionally coupled to the humanistic European continental tradition and at least five different concepts can today be distinguished in relation to higher education in a Swedish context. First, the old tradition, going back to von Humbolt and the humanistic and free intellectual ideals of the Berlin University, second the Nordic tradition formed by of the labour movement where the “study circle” was developed and Bildung was for everyone, third the focus on democracy and the tradition from Dewey can be discerned, this especially in relation to teacher education, fourth, the liberal art tradition often associated which Marta Nussbaum which still have many links to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome, and at last, the critical movement, “critical Bildung” which questions the classical ideals of Bildung and is often associated with empowerment (Burman, 2013).

The aim of this study is to understand if, in a time characterized by NPM, Bildung have any significance, and if it has, which concept or concepts are of importance for those researchers and teachers who are actively involved in a Swedish teacher education of today.

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