Teachers’ time is an important resource. What teachers do and how they use their time throughout the work day, contributes to define the context of learning in schools. At the same time, several recent studies within the field of education have illustrated that the conditions for teachers’ work have changed significantly over time, both as a consequence of political reforms and of changes in society (Lawn 1995; Hargreaves 2001; Ball 2003). Intensification, fragmentation, and bureaucratisation are example of processes signifying teachers’ work of today. As a possible result, the time spent on core activities – such as teaching and planning – have decreased in the favour of, for instance, administration and practical tasks.

Previous studies have examined different aspects of teachers’ time use, for instance time use in different subjects and time use inside or outside class (e.g. Murnane & Raizen 1988; Aili & Brante 2007). Different methodological approaches are used; small-N studies are the dominant empirical method (e.g. Aili 2007). Generalizable studies of how teachers’ entire work days are constituted are unusual, but yet important for understanding the preconditions for learning in schools (OECD 2009).

Taking a quantitative approach, the overall objective of the study presented in this paper is to analyse how teachers use their time throughout the whole work day. More specifically, the aim is to discover how teachers spend time doing various activities, such as lesson planning, teaching, marking, and reflection. The study also compares patterns in time use between different categories of teachers, for instance teachers teaching different grades and subjects. It also compares teachers working in different kinds of schools, such as publicly and privately owned schools and schools with different socioeconomic background among their students.

Theoretically, the study relies on recent educational research on teachers work as well as on time use research. Studies on how political reforms and social changes have influenced teachers’ work over the last years serve as a starting point (see e.g. Lawn 1995; Hargreaves 2001; Ball 2003). The study employ two different theoretical approaches to time use analysis (Ellegård 2010). First, the study analyses teachers’ average time use. Average time use is defined as the average share used on single activities, compared to all time spent on work activities among a certain group of teachers. This approach has been prevailing in the field of time use studies.

Second, the study analyses teachers’ time use from a time geographical perspective, an approach gaining increased attention in the field over the last years. The time geographical perspective calls for questions like in what order teachers do different activities, which activities interrupt other activities, and where different activities take place.

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