Teacher educators’ struggles over the curriculum
of teacher education in the Netherlands
Anja Swennen, VU University Amsterdam
Monique Volman, University of Amsterdam
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Typical Dutch
The Netherlands has a dual system for Higher Education:
traditional universities and Hogescholen (Högskolen, Hochschule)
Teacher education for both primary
and secondary education are
mainly situated in Hogescholen,
but there is a struggle going on
Polder model, but not as strong as before
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The research
From head teachers to teachers in higher education
The development of the profession and identity of teacher
educators
•
•
•
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History of the profession of teacher educators from 1779 to
2011
Focus on monopoly, autonomy, academic knowledge and the
struggle for jurisdiction over these (Abbott, 1988)
Identity of five teacher educators related to the development in
their profession (Holland et al., 1998)
Professionalization of profession
Professionalization of each profession means to increase:
Monopoly: the right to educate teachers and examine them
Autonomy: the right to develop the structure and contents of
your own work, the curriculum of teacher education
(claim for) academic knowledge: the claim to develop and
disseminate academic knowledge
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Outcome of interprofessional struggle
1. One group enforces total monopoly and autonomy over
another (In the early 20th century: Teacher education over school for the
education of primary teachers)
2. Distinct hierarchical subprofessions are established, such as
doctors and nurses in medicine (Institute based Teacher educators
and school-based teacher educators?)
3. Equal distribution of work (Institute-based teacher educators and
school-based teacher educators?)
4. On group claiming intellectual jurisdiction of a profession
(Researchers of (teacher) education)
5. One group has an advisory role in relation to another (Different
forms of educational and non-educational consultancies and advisors)
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Curriculum as outcome of struggles
The struggles for the primary teacher education
curriculum shape the curriculum and provide constant
change in which recurrent themes are addressed in line
with new insights and presumed needs of student
teachers
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Questions for this paper
1. How do the results of these struggles affect the
monopoly, autonomy and claim for academic
knowledge of teacher educators?
2. What is the role of the teacher educators in the
struggles for the teacher education curriculum?
Important outcomes:
• He who has the gold, makes the rules
• Status matters
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Three recent examples
The struggle between primary teacher education and Higher
Education Institutions for the general educational view of the
teacher education curriculum: competency-based, market-driven
and practice-driven
The struggle between teacher education and schools (and the
government) about where student teachers should be educated:
school-based teacher education
The struggle between teacher education and the government
about the contents of teacher education: knowledge-based teacher
education
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3. Knowledge: the new fashion
Report from the Dutch National Educational Council
Because of competent based and school-based teacher educators there are
concerns about the quality of teacher education when it comes to ‘knowledge’
Reaction from the government
• Compulsory ‘knowledge base’ for each subject in teacher education (primary
and secondary TE): subject knowledge, subject pedagogy knowledge and
teaching methods which are characteristic of the given subject
• Compulsory “knowledge tests” for all subjects
Spending millions of euro’s
On the development of the knowledge base and tests by experts
In supervisoing project groups: Subject specialists from traditional universities
In working groups: Experts from national institutions (curriculum, assessment),
educational consultancies and sometimes a teacher educator
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Developing a knowledge-base in TE
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1. Monopoly, autonomy & the claim to
academic knowledge
The government enforces curriculum content and tests, thus
- decreasing monopoly and autonomy of teacher educators
- increasing the ‘academic level’ of teacher education, but decreasing the need
for academic knowledge by teacher educators
Traditional universities claim intellectual jurisdiction over the contents of teacher
education, thus claiming the right to develop academic knowledge for and
about teacher education and decreasing the autonomy of teacher educators
‘Experts’ (National institutes, consultancies, publishers) claim an advisory and
expert role, thus claiming their broker role between academic and professional
knowledge and decreasing the autonomy of teacher educators
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2. What is the role of teacher educators?
On an individual level:
Teacher educators agree, accept or adapt to the
interference of the government and others
Some teacher educators regard these developments as a
decrease of autonomy, while others welcome the
interference of the government as support for what they
saw as valuable (their subject knowledge) and as
strengthening the identity they desired, subject expert
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2. What is the role of teacher educators?
On a the level of the profession:
Kliebard (2004) refers to a struggle at center stage in a
continuing drama
This is not like the struggle for the teacher education
curriculum in the Netherlands, which seems hardly a
struggle for the teacher educators
Teacher education, teacher educators and their
associations do hardly formally engage in the ‘struggles’
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Why?
The role of teacher educators is limited
Because he who has the gold, makes the rules
- Government is responsible
- Government pays
And also because status matters
- humble origins (Cole & Knowles, 2004)
- low status of teacher education (Maguire, 2000)
- low status of teacher educators (Ellis, McNicholl, Blake, & McNally, 2014)
And we rather trust those higher in status as academics and
‘experts’
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