Teacher's Life Worlds, Agency and Policy Contexts

Life history studies of teachers have remained a sadly neglected genre and have only recently become strongly developed in many countries. In 2000, the authors began a collaboration to develop life and work history research with a group of teachers who, 40 years earlier, had been pioneers of the Swedish 9-year compulsory school reform. The present paper describes interesting differences between British and Swedish research and school policy raises questions about the professional development of teachers in contexts of increasing marketisation of public service. The study connects directly to Michael Huberman's life cycle work and emphasises a close and egalitarian collaboration between the researchers and the teachers in the scholarly process.