#åsic | From a teacher's point of view, some is old and some is new!
Let’s hope the headline for this Åsic is true! I believe it is. SO far, a new year has meant a brand new start to so many things in my working life as a teacher, that I dare to hope for 2015 to be likewise.
A few times my start off in January after relaxing days off during Christmas Holidays has meant a completely new setting with either new students or a new school to work in. Sometimes I have even changed level in the Swedish education system. After 23 years as a teacher I have experienced the changes of curricula on a state level a couple of times. I have also decided for myself to start teaching a new subject and thus I have needed to focus on learning, for instance by getting university grades in that subject. No matter what kind of changes I have experienced as a teacher, they all seem to have had a lot of things in common, if a whole school or a group of teachers are involved.
What first might be a challenging struggle where everyone is interested and engaged, might turn into a nightmare where all fight for their own ideas. But it may also be a very good opportunity for teachers to listen to each other and share ideas to define or develop the main idea together. Different viewpoints or ideas for solutions need to be negotiated and exposed to the whole group, in order to go on to the next level of change. This ciritical point in the group process is where many teachers and for that matter, principals, tend to give up, instead of forcing themselves to ride through the storm and realize that there will be a calm sea on the other side of whatever the problem might be.
The Swedish Government will still find difficulties in getting the message of change through since the oppositional parties in the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen)are reluctant to give up their ideas of education management. Although representatives for all political parties in the Riksdagen except Swedish Democrats (SD) came to a mutual agreement for passing minority governments’ ideas through the Riksdagen, we might still have to wait another four years for any kind of major change for teachers and students in Sweden. But hey, let’s find new ways together!