This year, a commission led by Peter Honeth – former state secretary at the Ministry of Education and Research – has been working on behalf of the government to develop a series of proposals to improve teacher education. A survey on how to strengthen support for Swedish STEM programmes (mathematics, technology, and natural sciences) has also been conducted and a report will be presented at the end of the year.
The purpose of the investigation into teacher education is for more pupils in compulsory and upper secondary school to complete their education and to do so with a sound set of skills and knowledge. The investigators have visited a selection of higher education institutions offering teacher education programmes, including Karlstad University, where we participated in an interview round at the end of spring. One of the themes during the interviews was the importance of concrete knowledge and what teachers need to know in order to teach young people how to read, write and count. Another theme concerned the extent to which teacher training with different specialisations can be held in close collaboration with other higher education institutions to utilise shared resources and avoid the establishment of too many programmes. But probably the most important issue was about stricter entry requirements, both in terms of prior knowledge and suitability.
The investigators will present their report on 28 November, and it was announced in the summer that they would propose a requirement of a grade C in Swedish to be admitted to primary and secondary education programmes. Nationally, this proposal will have significant consequences for the number of graduating teachers and will likely result in a teacher shortage in the short term. At the same time, the investigators believe that it will not have a major impact due to increased completion rate and higher quality, which is expected to lead to more attractive teacher education programmes in the long run. This is also happening at a time when smaller cohorts of children are expected to go through the different stages of the school system. A highly relevant question is, of course, what this will mean for Karlstad University?
The teacher education board has already established agreements for closer collaborations with the University of Gothenburg, University West, Chalmers University of Technology and Jönköping University to coordinate resources. They have also analysed the impact of the proposal on stricter entry requirements. If this goes through, we can be sure to expect a significant decline in the number of applicants for traditional routes into teacher education. At the same time, we have ample opportunities to develop alternative routes to teacher education such as the bridging programme KPU and work-integrated learning. We will also express interest in and develop an attractive offer for continuing professional development that will be included in the proposed qualifications system for existing teachers.
Here, I want to stress the importance of us addressing this challenge as something that concerns the university as a whole and that we do not expect the teacher education board to come up with all the answers. Instead, it is about viewing the situation as a new playing field that creates opportunities for other degree programmes to grow – something which is supported by the high number of applicants for several of our engineering programmes this autumn semester. It may also create room for the development of new exciting courses, preferably with combinations of different subject areas. This has been discussed in the Education Strategy Team, which includes our deputy deans who focus on educational matters. In the autumn, they will address the issue with the faculties and the teacher education board to discuss how we can develop our educational offerings in a partially new context. In December, the faculty dialogues with the vice-chancellor will review these ideas.
