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Teacher Specialists and the Boundaries They Encounter: Towards a Nuanced Understanding of Teachers’ Perspectives of Specialised Teacher Roles

ABSTRACT This article studies differences in teachers’ and teacher specialists’ perspectives of a newly introduced teacher specialist role in Norway. It is known that the emergence of specialised teachers challenges the egalitarian norms of the profession. However, there is a lack of insight into teachers’ perspectives of these roles and the nuances of egalitarianism in schools. By drawing on extensive observational data, focus groups and individual interviews, the present paper explores the characteristics of teacher specialists’ perceived boundaries, and how these boundaries can nuance the comprehension of teachers’ perspectives. The results reveal three boundaries: a knowledge boundary, a structural boundary and a relational boundary. In general, teachers have an overall positive perception of role differentiation in terms of knowledge specialisation. However, their support of such differentiation seems to be related to—and dependent on—an absence of interference with their classroom practice and individual autonomy.