Reforming time in Danish schools

Abstract

The article analyses the performative effects of a working time law for Danish State School teachers. The law implied a shift from paying teachers WITH time to paying them FOR time in line with OEDC’s shift from an input- to an outcome-oriented understanding of public sector performance. The law is thus seen as part of a globalized reform of education in neoliberal direction, and the implications are analyzed by drawing on psychoanalytically inspired theories as well as anthropological theories of ritualization, investigation the implication of this shift.

Keywords:

• Working time
• teaching work
• reform
• public school
• policy

Notes

1. With the exception of teachers who were not members of a union and teachers who were old enough to be employed as ‘tjenestemænd’ (civil servants), meaning that they could neither be locked out nor go on strike.

2. The teachers were selected through snowballing, as each of them was asked to point to two other teachers who had very different views on matters related to working hours. The aim was to gain as many different perspectives as possible, and then see if there would be similarities in spite of this.

3. The actual expression used in Danish is ‘interessetimer’, which is impossible to translate. Literally it means ‘interest hours’, and it refers to time that people spend doing things that they are interested in. However, during the negotiations and the lockout, the word was also being used in some of the debates, for example, when people were discussing whether teachers responsible for teaching Danish lessons should be paid to read a novel. Was reading a novel part of the job, or was it something that normal people would do in their free time, so it should not be paid for?