Judging by the (law)book: Knowledge forms in teachers’ work against degrading behavior

Abstract

Interpreting and producing text has become a new and important dimension in teacher professionalism in an increasingly juridified school. In a case study, we analyse consequences of textbased teacher duties, for changes in teachers’ professional knowledge. Interviews were performed with teachers, head teachers and staff working with students’ social and physical health in one school after several complaints by parents followed by criticism from the Swedish Schools Inspectorate. As a consequence teachers increasingly had to adhere to formal plans and in text report student incidents to the head teacher. Traditional embodied knowledge about how to handle and foster students in conflict was being replaced by new competencies and sensitivities related to formal definitions, strategic language use and behaviour. Preliminary findings suggest that complaints and the obligation to write incident reports involve a process of re-creating teacher professionalism and the development of new forms of teacher knowledge in a context characterized by risk.