Reforms of teacher education usually have the underlying question of the role and function of what makes a ‘good’ teacher. Associated with this question is how government policy agendas address whether teachers should be educated and/or trained as ‘technicians’ or as professionals. In Sweden more profound reform programmes of teacher education are introduced every decade. These reforms are driven by the belief that raising standards within the school system depends on improvement of teacher quality and thereby teacher education/training, overlooking the risk of pushing towards reforms that are simplistic and leading to an ‘atomised’ and fragmented education system. Of course, there is a need of improvement but there is a risk that reforms can be a part of the problem and not a solution, or as Åstrand puts it: “Can fragmentation in teacher education be better understood in the light of the reforms as a fragmenting force rather than the opposite?”.

A related reform, a national professional merit system for teachers was launched in Sweden 2025. The intensions expressed in the proposition was to strengthen the teacher profession and enhance the professional development and structure for career advancement (Prop. 2022/23:45). The merit system is based on individual university credits and consists of four levels bounding from 15 ECTS on level one to a completed PhD on level four. The merits are intended to correlate with salary raise and possibilities for certain positions within the teacher profession. The regulation was welcomed by the Swedish teacher union due to its possibilities to strengthen individual teachers’ agency regarding their professional development, and the direction towards a more transparent system for salaries (Swedish teachers’ union 2025).

However, what constitutes as meriting is strictly regulated by a paragraph (5§) in the regulation (SFS 2025:280) where the government has defined the areas considered valid for the merit system. Included in 5§ is school-subjects, subject teaching methodology, special needs pedagogy, leadership and cognitive science. Pedagogy and educational sciences are two large, intertwined research areas that has been largely excluded as valid areas to study and get credits for in the national merit system. Critique was raised on the narrow focus of the paragraph which exclude research areas so central for the teacher profession (se for example the response on the proposition by the association of Swedish higher education institutions, SUHF 2025 and Swedish teachers’ union 2025). Despite the critique, the paragraph was implemented.

This paper presentation takes its point of departure in an earlier study where we analyse teacher students’ reflection on the broad function of educational setting, belonging and motivation (Neuhaus and Berglund 2024). The students in the study wrote about their situation during the pandemic (2020 - 2021) when university studies were on-line only. The students’ voices on digitalisation, isolation, and their future role as teachers illustrate the importance of belonging and motivation in education. We use the analysis of the students’ reflections to consider educational quality and purpose in relation to the above mentioned 5§ and its possible narrowing of areas in professional development for teachers. The aim was to visualize if areas of importance for teacher students, in relation to relational aspects of their future profession, is covered in the definition of what constitutes as meriting professional development for teachers according to 5§. If not, we asked what falls outside of the research areas defined in the paragraph.

The students’ reflections were gathered during course assignments in two groups of teacher students, 2020 there was 75 students in the course and 2021 there was 83 students. The aim of the assignment was to try to ‘catch the moment’ of educational experience in these odd circumstances. The situation accentuated the relational aspects of teaching and learning. In the online forum, the flow of conversation is constantly interrupted by the technique of only one microphone at a time being active. The body language is hidden and therefore the spoken word largely takes a more prominent place, only allowing one voice at the time. The students were asked to choose among a few articles and use that article as a foundation for a written reflection on the educational situation. One of these optional texts was chosen by most of the teacher students. It was an article published on 2 April 2020 by the researcher Jahnke. The article was published in the online newspaper School and Society (S.O.S) centring on school, politics of school and teacher education. In the article, Jahnke points out that the new situation with distance teaching could be considered as a great experiment but also as an opportunity to learn something new. Jahnke suggests three areas where new knowledge can be acquired from the situation. Firstly, knowledge about ´what is going on at the moment´ (for example distance teaching). Secondly, knowledge about what has been going on (ordinary teaching) and thirdly, knowledge about our ability to act with good judgement in the present situation. Based on this article, the students wrote about their view on the role and function of education in light of the experienced isolation. When the physical aspects of education and teaching were absent, aspect otherwise taken for granted became explicit. The conceptual framework used in the original analysis of the students´ reflections consist of Biesta’s (2009) concepts, qualification, socialisation and subjectification, Deci and Ryan’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory, Asplund’s (Aspelin on Asplund, 2015) reasoning around social responsivity and Rosa’s (2021) resonance concept (Neuhaus and Berglund 2022). The themes identified in the students’ reflections was related to what, according to paragraph five in SFS:2025:280, is defined as meriting professional development. We analysed if the aspects identified as important for the teacher students can be included in the narrow definition of the research areas defined by the government as valuable to teachers’ professional development through 5§.

The change of educational setting to a digital forum inspired the students to reason around the role of the educational setting, not only as a place where learning happens but as a place where we build community. The interrelational aspects of teaching emerged. Since it is difficult for a speaker to read signals from listeners, it is also more difficult to adapt to the situation and be responsive, perhaps giving us some insights into how isolating it might be for people who experience difficulties interpreting subtle signals from others, relating to special needs education in 5§. Disruptive elements are reduced in the digital learning space and disrupters made invisible. Hartmut Rosa (2021) argues that resonance from the world around us is essential to avoid alienation and links our strive to order the world to a reduction in resonance. From the students’ reflections, the digital teaching seems to embody just that, more order and less resonance. This reduction in dimensions of belonging or relatedness affects people to different degree since the intrinsic psychological need for relatedness varies (Deci & Ryan, 2000). For those who have difficulty in fulfilling the needs on other arenas, it might be a larger loss than for those which have access to more arenas of relatedness and belonging. The relationship between the innate need for relatedness and motivation become visible in some of the students’ reflections. They describe getting tired, bored and seem to need to remind themselves of the fact that we are ‘in this together’. To create a sense of belonging and motivation in schools is a difficult task that teachers struggle with and which might benefit from a broader definition of what counts as meriting professional development than what is defined in 5§.

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