Ödmjukhet orubblighet

En avgörande (och rimlig) kvalitet i lärares yrkeskunnande

Abstract

The article provides one answer to the question of what the ingredients of teacher quality are. The findings are based on data collected from experienced teachers. Three different methods have been used; e-Delphi, stimulated recall and dialogue seminars. In cooperation with the teachers, the scholars have tried to conceptualize decisive qualities in the teachers professional experiences. Two words – humble tenacity – appeared as an essential description of the characteristics of a skilled teacher. The generation of the concept is inspired by David Hansen’s writing, in which he claims “tenacious humility” as an ideal for good teaching. To do justice to the empiricism in the present study Hansen’s word order are reversed. In contrast to a tenacious humility, a humble tenacity stresses the tenacious, the teacher’s portrait of him- or herself. The knowledge of the teacher is then more focused on making oneself and one’s ideals visible and less about trying to see the pupils, or that the pupils have to make themselves visible. Finally the article discuss such knowledge in relation to the rise of an individualized society enclosed with a therapeutic education in which the pedagogy of seeing, a pedagogy which emphasizes closeness and intimacy, has become an important ingredient within the teaching profession.