The good teacher : a qualitative study of four primary teacher's view of the good teacher and their own role as a teacher

The aim of this study was to examine how the interviewed primary teachers in two schools situated in the Stockholm area understand themselves as teachers in relation to their image of the good teacher. The research questions were: How do the informants discuss their image of the good teacher? How do the informants describe their own role as a teacher? A qualitative method, by interviews made with four primary teachers, was used to collect data for the examination. The results from the interviews were analyzed and discussed from the theories and earlier research concerning the role of the teacher and what they describe as the good teacher. The theoretical connection of this study was based on the theories of Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, Dewey, Dreikurs, Kounin and Glasser concerning the relationship between the role of the teacher and learning. The conclusions of this study was that the four primary teacher’s image of the good teacher match their description of their own role as a teacher, and so does the most of the earlier research on the subject. Teachers must possess a broad competence and contiously control a lot. I believe that teachers’ personal characteristics in some cases can affect the quality of teaching and the pupils’ learning but I think that it is primarily the teacher’s attitude to their professional role and the teaching quality in itself that contributes to learning. An extrovert or humble teacher is not necessarily a better teacher than those who do not have these characteristics, but who carries on a teaching marked by orderliness and commitment. I do not think there is a definitive link between a teaching that contributes to learning and the personal characteristics that are often associated with the good teacher