Att vara och bli yrkeslärare. Lärande som nykomling och erfaren i arbete och studier

Abstract in English

This study is about learning for vocational teachers who are experienced in their first career, trainee teachers and employed as unqualified teachers. They do teaching practice placement (TPP) at their workplace in school. The dimensions of being experienced and beginner are central. The theoretical and analytical perspective are the theories of learning in and between communities of practice (Lave & Wenger 1991; Wenger 1998) and the concepts of learning mechanisms (Akkerman & Bakker 2011). How the informants describe their participation in, belonging to and brokering between school and teacher training is central. The data consists of interviews with fifteen informants working within eight vocational programs and studying at five universities. Prior research shows that vocational teachers need to relate to their first career and the teaching profession. This affects their teaching, for example by moving between students’ employability and civic education (Fejes & Köpsén 2014). The result shows that informants recognize professional practice from their first careers. They describe the importance of teacher training, especially to participate as newcomers in relation to their previous experiences of training. The importance of belonging to experienced teachers and fellow trainees is central. Brokering is significant, for example the re-evaluation from the first career and the critical evaluation by acting differently in school. Brokering also appears when policy documents do not coincide with school. In parallel policy documents are boundary objects between the first career, the school and the teacher training. Brokering gives perspective to informants’ work because informants change focus to the students’ perspective. TPP is a boundary practice for changed participation where informants with the aid of teachers and TPP tasks change positions: from working as an experienced teacher to becoming a newcomer trainee. Unqualified vocational teachers’ professional learning is about being and becoming teachers by appearing as old-timers and newcomers in school and in teacher training. The concept of brokering helps nuance learning when teachers emphasize the importance of moving between being a newcomer and an old-timer, with the support of fellow trainees and experienced teachers.