Ett omöjligt uppdrag? Konstruktioner av läraryrket i Lärarförbundets facktidning

This study sets out to investigate how the roll of the teacher is constructed in the Swedish Teachers’ Unions trade publication. Based on the theory of social constructionism we have used the method of critical discourse analysis to establish dominant trends and patterns in how the roll of teacher is constructed in editorials in Swedish Lärarnas Tidning. We have established that the conflict between a modernist school tradition and a postmodern society has resulted in a dominant, traditional teacher discourse which is being simultaneously challenged by both a market-orientated discourse and a professionalization discourse. Furthermore, we attempt to highlight how these ‘ideal’ constructions can create problems in terms of identity construction for teachers. Aside from a process of professionalization, teaching has also undergone an intensification in terms of workload in a period of incessant education reform, with new tasks being handed down without any of the older tasks disappearing. According to the Swedish Teachers’ Union this has rendered teaching something of a “mission impossible”