As noted by amongst other Erixon Arreman and Weiner (2007) teacher education in Sweden and in other European countries has been reshaped over recent decades by a variety of policies including the introduction of teaching standards; increased diversity of school forms; expansion of private sector; heightened surveillance and accountability; and greater emphasis on research and professional development. Five main European influences on teacher education have also been identified. These are professionalization, traditions, research, feminization and globalization (Weiner, 2002; Beach, 2010) and it is claimed that older practices of teacher education are being successively challenged and displaced by developments generated by globalization and standardized forms of accreditation (Erixon Arreman and Weiner, 2007).

Two trends have been recognised in the transformation of teacher education (Erixon Arreman and Weiner, 2007; Beach, 2011; Beach and Bagley, 2012). The first has been toward enriched professionalism through the universification of teacher education (i.e. its incorporation in the university systems of many countries) and the development of a common research and knowledge base for enhanced professional autonomy and dialogue within the profession and between it and its clients or their representatives as well as other professions. This was part of the development of socialised labour force within the teaching profession (Beach, 2010). More recent reforms seem to be reversing this trend (Beach and Bagley, 2012). There is now increasing de-professionalization and increased control from the outside the profession and craft knowledge in divided profession with low status now once again seems to prevail. These transformations coincide with the increasing commercialisation and private capitalisation of education globally (Beach, 2008, 2010; Erixon Arreman and Weiner, 2007).

In the present research paper we will explore aspects of the above policy trajectory using a meta-ethnographic approach to policy ethnographic and policy historical research conducted in relation to recent teacher education reforms. The ethnographic research spans over the past 25 years and three reform cycles (e.g Beach, 1995; Beach & Player-Koro, 2012; Eriksson, 2009; Player-Koro, 2011). But five reform cycles will be considered in all. These are comprised respectively by the Green and White Paper productions from the 1946 School Commission’s Teacher College Delegation, the 1960 Teacher Education Expert Committee, the 1974 Teacher Education Investigation (LUT 74), the 1997 Teacher Education Committee (LUK 97) and most recently the HUT 2007 Commission on Sustainable Teacher Education.

Participant observation has been carried out in primarily the third and fourth cycles. Theories and concepts developed by the British sociologist of education Basil Bernstein have been important to the analyses and interpretations made. The values and interests of the most recent round of reform will be analysed in critical detail and linked to the conference theme concerning political commitments to education for all. This commitment has previously been supported by the commitment to explore the foundations for comprehensive and life long education institutions and the education of professionals who work with individuals and groups in these institutions. Policy signs can be interpreted to suggest that governments and trans-national agencies are loosing the strong and necessary interest for this.

Beach, D. (1995). Making sense of the Problems of Change: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Teacher Education Reform. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothenburgensis. Beach, D. (2010) Socialisation and Commercialisation in the Restructuring of Education and Health Professions in Europe: Questions of Global Class and Gender, Current Sociology, 58(4), 551-569. Beach, D. (2011). Education science in Sweden: Promoting research for teacher education or weakening its scientific foundations? Education Inquiry, 2(2), 207-220. Beach, D. & Bagley, C. (2012: in press). The weakening role of education studies and the re-traditionalisation of Swedish teacher education, Oxford Educational Review, 38(3) June 2012. Beach, Dennis, and Catarina Player-Koro. 2012. Authoritative Knowledge in Initial Teacher Education: Studying the Role of Subject Textbooks through Two Ethnographic Studies of Mathematics Teacher Education. Journal of Education for Teaching 38 (2). Eriksson, A. (2009). Om teori och praktik i lärarutbildning: En etnografisk och diskursanalytisk studie. Göteborg: Acta universitatis Gothenburgensis. Erixon Arreman, I. & Weiner, G. (2007) Gender, research and change in teacher education: a Swedish dimension, Gender and Education,19, 317-337. Player-Koro, Catarina. 2011. Marginalising students' understanding of mathematics through performative priorities: a Bernsteinian perspective. Ethnography and Education 6 (3):325-340.