![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
This article uses the new Decree on teacher education in Flanders, Belgium, as a case study to critically examine the changes in the conception of teacher professionalism in education policy. In this examination, the focus is on the ‘form of problematisation’ (Foucault) that is enacted in the texts of the Decree. It will be argued that the Decree reflects the movement from a profession‐oriented to a market‐oriented form of problematisation of teaching and teacher education. The new conception of teacher professionalism will be identified at four levels in the new Decree on teacher education: (1) the definition of the teacher (and her training) as a strategic policy target, (2) the structural reform of teacher education, (3) the qualitative reform of teacher education, and (4) the organisational framing of institutes for teacher education. Based on this analysis, the article concludes that ‘profession‐oriented virtues’ (expertise, responsibility and autonomy) are replaced by ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘market‐oriented’ virtues (competency/effectiveness, responsiveness and flexibility).
Notes
1. In the federal state system of Belgium, legislation by the central parliament are called ‘laws’ (wetten), whereas the legislation by the Flemish parliament is called ‘Decree’ (decreten). Since the Flemish community has full responsibility for the area of education, all legislation concerning education is provided in the form of decrees (since 1989). All quotes from Flemish policy documents are translated from Dutch by the authors.
2. The same market‐oriented pattern can be observed in the restructuring of Flemish higher education (including teacher education) along the lines of a common European bachelor–master structure and with flexible learning trajectories (Masschelein & Simons, Citation2002).