1.1 Purpose

This book is written for people who are interested in education policy in the Nordic region, including student teachers and their supervisors, teachers and staff in teacher education institutions, and policymakers and educational researchers in general, along with communities in the general public. Therefore, the target groups are both those in academia and people in the broader society. Its purpose is to present insights and research that are relevant to both insiders and outsiders regarding understanding of teacher education in the Nordic region. The authors do not form a common front on the complex question of ideal teacher education and the strengths and weaknesses of various teacher education programmes; they present a wide range of arguments and views. The authors believe that the varied contributions can be valuable in the debate about ideal teacher education.

Each author is solely responsible for his or her chapter. This book’s contributions are not intended as self-congratulatory tributes. The articles are written on the premises of academia (i.e., with its demands for rigour, objectivity, sobriety and integrity). We – the authors – hope and believe that factual and case-oriented discussion can provide a basis for arriving at independent conclusions and help advance the debate. We thank collegues and the anonymous reviewers who have reviewed the chapters and offered constructive criticism, which has contributed to clarifications and nuances in each chapter.

For practical reasons, we have largely limited this book’s scope to teacher education for primary and lower secondary schools. However, it also touches on teacher education for the upper secondary school level. Matters related to preschool teacher education and vocational teacher education are not addressed. This decision was not made because we believe these teacher education variants to be of less importance; it is simply a practical delineation to maintain the focus on the book’s primary topic.Footnote 1

1.2 The Nordic Region and Its Education Arrangements

Geographically, the Nordic region consists of the five northern European countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), along with their autonomous territories: Greenland and the Faroe Islands (Denmark) and the Åland Islands (Finland). The Sámi people, an indigenous people living in Sápmi (the northern areas of Finland, Sweden and Norway), belongs also to the Nordic region.Footnote 2

While teacher education in the Nordic countries has been explored earlier (Skagen, 2006; Nordic Council of Ministers, 2008; Blossing et al., 2014; Elstad, 2020), this book is, as far as we know, the first account of teacher education in the Nordic region which includes Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Åland Islands and Sápmi (Chaps. 4–11). In addition to specific chapters from each area, the book also contains analyses across the Nordic region (Chaps. 1, 2 and 11–15). Those who work in teacher education institutions outside the Nordic region or conduct research into teacher education, may find the diversity of teacher education in the Nordic region academically interesting and possibly instructive.

The school model in the Nordic countries is distinctive; it differs from models in other parts of the world (Hopmann, 2006). All Nordic countries and autonomous areas rely on an extended inclusive, comprehensive and undifferentiated model that values equity and eschews streaming until learners complete lower secondary school at the age of 15 or 16 (Blossing et al., 2014). However, even though school models in the Nordic countries have much in common, their teacher education programmes are quite diverse and different, and they are different in interesting and important ways. The inclusion of Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Åland Islands and Sápmi, adds much to the complexity in the Nordic region. Therefore, we believe that this book will be of interest and value outside the Nordic region.

The school systems in the Nordic countries are part of a larger model of society that is known as the social-democratic Nordic welfare state (which differs from the liberal Anglo-American and corporate Continental models, Esping-Andersen, 1990, 1999; Kuhnle & Alestalo, 2017). The distinctive traits of the Nordic welfare state evoke both positive attention (e.g. “The next supermodel”, The Economist, 2013) and dystopian associations (e.g., Sanandaji, 2016). International comparisons show, for instance, that we who live in the Nordic countries are among the happiest people in the world (Helliwell et al., 2021). The Nordic countries are also routinely at the top of league tables of almost everything, even economic conditions (The Economist, 2013). In the latest measurements of economic conditions, which are based on OECD statistics, the economic picture is not as rosy (Eklund, 2018; Eklund & Thulin, 2020). The common image of the Nordic region as a utopia must therefore be tempered by nuance. There have been heated debates about which Nordic attributes are admirable and which are not. Indeed, it is sometimes claimed that the Nordic societies succeed despite their typical welfare state arrangements: a subsidised and universal healthcare system; free education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels; extended maternity leave; subsidised kindergarten arrangements and so on (Sanandaji, 2016). Some have even compared the Nordic countries to nations like Venezuela, where the state does not function successfully (e.g. Forrest, 2018). Although these highly critical voices may not dominate the debate, they do persist. In this book, interest in teacher education is woven into a wider societal considerations: the Nordic school model within the context of the Nordic model of society. We utilise a broad societal perspective to study teacher education in the Nordic region.

A reason why teacher education in the Nordic countries has received favourable attention, was the success of Finnish schools after the millennium, as evidenced in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys. This phenomenon has generated interest in Finnish teacher education (Barber & Mourshed, 2007; Mourshed et al., 2010; The British Educational Research Association, 2014; Darling-Hammond, 2017) and in turn in other teacher education programmes in the Nordic countries.

It is the hope of the authors of the present book that it will reach a wider audience than solely teacher educators, school researchers and scholars in the social sciences and humanities. For example, readers interested in how societies function may be curious to discover what lies behind the external characteristics of the Nordic countries. Some may be interested simply in seeing schools and hence teacher education as elements of distinct national cultures. It is part of human nature to be fascinated by societies that are different from our own, and we need to access myths and ideas about facets of society that are different in order to understand and appreciate our own society. Nordic branding has been an explicit phenomenon over the last decade: Nordic cuisine, the distinctive films characterised by Nordic noir. Nordic cultural expressions have been promoted by the Nordic Council, which seeks to provide a unified branding for all the Nordic countries.Footnote 3

The Old and Current Myths of the North

Carta Marina, the marine map and description of the Northern lands, was the first map of the Nordic countries published in 1539 and created by Olaus Magnus. The North has since ancient times been seen as the barbaric North. The Nordic communities were late members of Christianity and were not considered particularly civilized. The stories of Nordic greatness flourished during the Renaissance. The first myths about the North were propagated by Olaus Magnus (1490–1557), a Swedish Catholic archbishop in exile after Lutheranism had taken hold in Sweden, who wanted to inform people in the southern parts of Europe about Nordic peoples, animals and customs. Magnus wrote Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus in Latin (History of the Nordic Peoples).

A marine map of Carta Marina.

This occurred at a time when European countries were expanding their influence in other parts of the world and had increasing interest in foreign cultures. Magnus’ storytelling became widely popular and an important reference on the peoples of the North. This marked a breakthrough for Europeans’ knowledge of the Nordic region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Magnus’s storytelling promulgated and entrenched the first powerful myth of the North. The past is still an active force in our Nordic identity projects and has brought us closer to our neighbours. Further myths and visions about the North have appeared in new shapes and forms and nurture the dreams of Nordic greatness. Since the late 1990s, the Nordic brand has been an explicit phenomenon nurtured by the Nordic Council. In today’s Europe, elements of Nordic style are associated with quality and known as trademarks and brands.

A map of the Nordic region depicts the locations of Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Keland, the Faroe Islands, the Aland Islands, and Denmark.

A map of the Nordic region.

1.3 Justifications for Nordic Co-operation on Teacher Education

The Nordic region has in 2022 over 27 million inhabitants spread over a vast geographical area. Sweden has about 10.4 million inhabitants, while Norway, Denmark and Finland have populations of 5.4–5.8 million inhabitants. Iceland has only 366,000 inhabitants, and the autonomous territories have even fewer (Åland: 30000, Greenland: 56600. Faroe Islands: 52600). The vision the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council is “to make the Nordic region the most sustainable and integrated region in the world”. This has implications for teacher education in at least four different ways.

First, Nordic collaboration to ensure a future of Sámi education and Sámi teacher education is a vital issue (Elstad, 2022). Today, formal organizational collaboration on Sámi teacher education is weak, but it is difficult to find a better justification for Nordic co-operation than the ambition to ensure a future for Sámi education and hence Sámi teacher education.

Second, there is an untapped potential for Nordic co-operation by creating opportunities for benchmarking quality dimensions in teacher education. Norway, Sweden and Denmark utilise student nation-wide questionnairies: the Study Barometer (Norway), the Student Mirror (Sweden), and Learning Questionnaire (Denmark). Finland and Iceland, as well as the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, do not have these types of nationwide surveys for higher education. Notably, these surveys provide essential management information for each country’s education authority, and the measurements are used in public sector debates concerning teacher education, and within the individual teacher education environment. This information can be used by the national authorities of the individual countries and by networked improvement communities working to combine and spread ideas that provide innovation and learning to make teacher education more effective and efficient. To do a Nordic collaboration needs coordination across nations.

Third, the Finnish Åbo Akademi University starts teacher education in Sweden from 2023. The establishment of Finnish teacher education in Sweden can be the first step towards a new era of teacher education in the Nordic region. The vision is a Nordic university.Footnote 4 A joint Master’s in teacher education under the Nordic Masters Programme (NMP) was set up by the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) in 2007, but was no realised. However, the prerequisites are in place for students with a Nordic bachelor to progress from national programmes to the NMP, e.g. as a result of the implementation of the Bologna Process and the work being done under the auspices of official Nordic co-operation. The question is whether other institutions follow up this trajectory and intensify Nordic co-operation (Silleborg, 2010). Today we see expanded Nordic co-operation in higher education. However, each Nordic country finances its own teacher education.

Four, initiatives have been adopted earlier within Nordic co-operation, for instance, a bottom-up endeavour among Scandinavian teacher educators within the last decades. A Scandinavian network for teacher education leaders is arranged in collaboration between Universities Norway, the Teacher Education Convention (Sweden) and the Teacher Education Leaders Network (Denmark). Such co-operation initiatives can be interpreted as a continuation of previous waves of Nordic co-operation (meetings between Nordic co-operation partners in education in the 1870s–1970s and later periods of Nordic co-operation, Hemstad, 2008).

1.4 Kinship Across the Nordic Region

The Nordic region boasts significant diversity in culture and social conditions, but also similarities. Nevertheless, it makes sense to discuss Nordics as a concept, as there is something that binds its peoples together in a kind of kinship. Today, there is a certain unity and harmony among the Nordic countries (although this has not always been the case). The languages of Norwegians, Danes, Swedes and Swedish-speaking Finns are mutually intelligible.Footnote 5 As football fans, we cheer for our own country’s national football team, but if the Norwegian national team does not qualify for an international tournament, I root for my Nordic neighbours’ teams. In other words, I have an emotional commitment that I can transfer more easily to other Nordic countries than to other countries in Europe. I believe that I am not alone in experiencing my region and the world in this way. This is an expression of ties and bonds between the peoples of the Nordic countries.

Interactions between kinship peoples can sometimes resemble sibling rivalry, friendly feuds that are not now rooted in actual conflicts but are rather disagreements best understood as surface ripples. For example, we sometimes tease people in a neighbouring country by portraying them as a little bit stupid (Kagge, 2011); people laugh at such jokes, knowing they are generally not meant to be taken seriously. Danish football supporters call Norwegian football supporters ‘mountain monkeys’. Swedes name Norwegian men as ‘norrbaggar’, which means ‘rams from the north’. Norwegians name Swedish men as “söta bror” (sweet brother).Footnote 6 The use of nicknames is nevertheless friendly. People laugh at such jokes, knowing they are generally not meant to be taken seriously. But in time of crisis, people in the Nordic countries stand up for one another. For example, Norwegians, Finns and Danes who fled to Sweden during World War II received emergency help from people on the border. Another example is the Heimaey volcanic eruption in Iceland that began in January 1973; the lava destroyed an entire town. People of the Nordic countries raised money to support those who had suffered from this natural disaster in Iceland. There are several other examples of support of one Nordic people for another.

Throughout the ages, relations in the North have been characterised by both wars and alliances. The situation after World War II reflects a history of continuing formal co-operation among the Nordic countries and the aspiration for coordination of institutional arrangements, including schools and teacher education. This collaboration has proven significant in recent decades. The parliaments of the Nordic countries have co-operated in the Nordic Council since 1952, and Nordic governments have co-operated in the Nordic Council of Ministers since 1971. In the 1960s, the Nordic countries considered the idea of expanding economic co-operation in the form of NORDEK (Ueland, 1975; Sonne, 2007); however, that effort failed. In the following decades, co-operation schemes have continued as regional partnership. The partnership has also evolved in new areas, such as forums on teacher education. These forms of co-operation have continued as a consequence of past ties. Today, it is fair to say that the dynamics of Europeanisation (Featherstone & Radaelli, 2003) have become increasingly important for the forms of co-operation between the Nordic countries (Sträng, 2015). Nevertheless, there are significant differences in their approaches to European integration. The membership of Sweden, Denmark and Finland in the EU (the European Union) makes clear that EU integration is a dynamic force that appears to be increasingly important. We do not know the long-term consequences of this fact. On the other hand, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands remain outside the EU and only follows of EU rulings to some extent.Footnote 7

Education is the responsibility of member states in EU. However, the EU plays a vague supporting role in the education field (Lange & Alexiadou, 2010). It is uncertain whether common development trends vis-à-vis the EU will intensify, weaken or stay the same. International assessments monitor trends in learner achievement: PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have instruments that provide data that helps shape the ways that the EU educational experts and networks operate and the policy areas on which they focus (Grek, 2009). Thus, the EU’s policy formulations can affect EU countries more powerfully than the Nordic regions outside the EU. In any case, teacher education institutions and schools are influenced by complex change processes at the national, Nordic, European and global levels. This complexity is reflected in several chapters (Chaps. 13–15) of this book.

Countries and the relations between them cannot be understood as stable structures, but as constructions in which processes of change are always taking place. For example, the idea of equality between people – a key value in all Nordic countries – must be constantly maintained and striven for if it is to be realised through political decisions. The development of a country or a region is the consequence of complex processes at both the micro and macro levels. There is an ongoing debate among social commentators about how societies should be governed and develop. Long-term perspectives on development trends in the European states (Shore, 2013) can provoke significant differences of opinion about, for example, the long-term goal regarding formation of a United States of Europe (Nijkamp, 1993; Fabbrini, 2010) versus regionalism, and the continued existence of the nation state as a “natural” unit (Keating, 1998). The situation today is even more delicate, as there are movements for independence in several parts of Europe, even within the countries inside the EU.

Although each nation state governs its own school and teacher education systems, supranational influences and trends cannot be denied. The question of why states exist largely boils down to the question of national identity. In Europe, there are tensions between national and regional identities, along with the idea of a common European supranational identity (Sträng, 2015).

In the Danish autonomous territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, there is debate about whether they should break free of Danish control and become independent countries. So far, it does not appear that the struggle for independence has reached the boiling point. The Faroe Islands and Greenland mainly govern themselves. The idea of Faroese independence does not have the same support it once did, while the idea of independence for Greenland still smoulders beneath the surface. There is also a political party that works for independence of Åland Islands’ from Finland, but it has little support. A tension between identities is also present among the Sámi people.

Teaching existed long before teacher education. Chapter 1 shows that with the spread of Christianity, education evolved in the North for priests and others who needed proficiency in reading, writing and theology. But this meant that formal education was highly limited. Nevertheless, the skills of reading and writing among a sufficient number of people became important for the evolution of a governing and administrative apparatus that was not inferior to that found in other, comparable regions. Written communication became important in building a power base for pursuing politics. Within the medieval dichotomy of power between regent and church, theology in the first schools also became important in the work of building up the position of the Catholic Church in the high north. After the Reformation, mass education arose over time. People should be able to read the Bible themselves. But many reluctantly went to this common school. Ordinary people had to read the Bible. To achieve civil rights (ie be able to marry), one had to complete confirmation education, which required at least reading skills and knowledge of the Bible. The one-room schoolhouse was the primary way of organizing schooling. Rote learning of Christian texts was common. No institutionalized teacher education was needed to implement simple memorization management.

An educational turn happened. A typical course of evolution was that teacher education become more and more necessary in the nineteenth century. As a consequence, initiatives were over time undertaken to create teacher seminaries. Dominant models developed in Germany (Kiel) were translated and adapted in Denmark. The evolution of the first institutionalized teacher education seminaries occurred at different times in the Nordic region: Blaagaard Seminarium (Denmark) in 1791, Lund (Sweden) in 1839, Trondenes (Norway) in 1826, Nuuk (Greenland) in 1845, Tórshavn (the Faroe Islands) in 1870, and Reykjavik (Iceland) in 1908. Finnish teacher training started in the Åbo Academy in 1640, but the first teacher seminary was instigated in 1806 (under Swedish rule until 1809). With the exception of which was a formal teacher training arrangement for teachers who were to teach Sami (Seminarium Scolasticum, Seminarium Domesticum og Seminarium Lapponicum were in business in the years 1717–1732), Trondenes Seminarium became the first publicly funded teacher education in Norway. However, the very first efforts were largely locally initiated teacher seminaries run by priests. Over time, however, the Nordic states (and later: the autonomous areas) took over responsibility for curricula and of teacher education. The first attempts to establish teacher education was limited to relatively short-term programmes. The duration of teacher education expanded over time, and teacher education at the secondary level was eventually established. The evolution of teacher education into education at the secondary level took also place at different times in different Nordic countries. As teacher education evolved from the secondary level to colleges (in the 1970s) and later universities, it became an educational programme at the tertiary level of the Nordic education systems.

The establishment of the first professorships in pedagogy followed a tortuous path: Christian Levin Sander was appointed to the first professor in pedagogy in 1800 (at Seminarium Pædagogicum, which became a part of University of Copenhagen), but after his death the position of the pedagogy subject was unsecure until 1955. The professorships in pedagogy came at different times in the other areas: 1855 in Finland, 1908 in Norway, 1910 in Sweden, 1973 in Iceland and in 2012 in Greenland.

Finland (which also includes the Åland Islands) was a frontrunner in locating teacher education for primary school in university institutions. This trend is named universitisation trajectory, which means adaptions to academic standards (Menter, 2018). That Finnish decision was first made in 1966, but was not fully implemented until the end of the 1970s.Footnote 8 Finland thus chose a different strategy in the 1960s and 1970s than the other Nordic countries, which followed the British model with a binary tertiary level: a distinction between research-oriented universities and a polytechnic sector, with teacher education programmes following the applied academic tradition (Kyvik, 2004). Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and, to some extent, Norway and Sweden catched up to the idea of locating teacher education in universities in the early years of this millennium. How well these teacher education programmes have been integrated into universities, is an open question. Indeed, in Norway and Sweden, this process is yet not complete, and there are still teacher education programmes at some colleges. The pressure to academicise the content of teacher education and to promote the scope of research activities has become significant. Finland’s five-year master’s degree programme with a research thesis (Chap. 5) served as an inspiration and paradigm for the evolution of similar programmes with research-based professional ideals in Norway (Chap. 6) and Iceland (Chap. 8). Norway and Iceland have clearly followed the universitisation trajectory. The Swedish programmes are very diverse with an employment based route (KPU, new shorter supplementary pedagogical education) on the one hand and five-year programmes on the other hand (Chap. 4).

If teacher education reform in Finland can be compared to tango and its target-oriented forward movement, the change processes in Denmark can be compared to the cha-cha-cha, with movements forward, back and then sideways. Denmark has a markedly different teacher education programme from the other Nordic countries: a four-year bachelor’s degree. The Faroe Islands and Greenland follow the Danish structure, but decides their own curricula. In Denmark, several reforms in teacher education have been carried out, including four since 1990 alone. A political agreement was reached in 2012 on reforming teacher education. The new programme came into force in 2013, but it was being revised in 2015 and in 2022. The Danish Ministry for Higher Education and Science began an evaluation of the quality and relevance of teacher education in the autumn 2017, with the results published in January 2019. Three months later, the authorities commissioned a new expert group to create novel models for how teacher education at “a high international level” could be realised, and to discuss how “a more appropriate placement of teacher education” in universities and university colleges might be realised. This expert group’s work was stopped in November 2020: the education authorities claimed that Denmark needed a broad boost in quality, and a new development group has in November 2021 proposed new suggestions of improvement in Danish teacher education. The intensity of change is significant in all Nordic countries except Finland.

Denmark (Chap. 7), the Faroe Islands (Chap. 9) and Greenland (Chap. 10), which follow Danish policy of higher education, have so far retained the four-year bachelor’s degree in educating teachers. Thus Denmark, which has located teacher education for primary and lower secondary levels at colleges, appears as an outlier in the Nordic context. However, its overall approach is still mainly in line with the general development of teacher education in the Nordic countries: the evolution from a seminaries-based education with many general education elements, to a modern profession-oriented education (Chaps. 1 and 2).

Almost everyone has opinion about teacher education or at least about the school system, which is precisely how it should be in a democracy. The question of excellent teacher education and school systems is, to some extent, inherently subject to discussion and even controversy. The tension between professional and academic learning, between relevance and rigour, seems to be a never ending story. If a person has to think about teacher education, it is advantageous to become familiar with teacher education research and direct experiences of the relevant parties in teacher education. The Chaps. 4–11 on initial teacher education in the Nordic countries and their autonomous areas, and the presentation of the comparative study (Chap. 12), one of which is based on student teachers’ experience in teacher education, contributes to the discussions of favourable features and criticisms and ideas for improvement. The question of how to realise what constitutes ideal teacher education has led to tensions among conflicting and even opposing expectations, and the debate over the solutions to the challenges created by those tensions is well served by a case-oriented and realistic discussion. It is important to handle the tensions and conflicts (Chaps. 13–15) in a constructive manner. This book as a whole presents information that provides a better basis for considering issues surrounding teacher education in the Nordic countries.

Despite national differences, the challenges in teacher education do have some common features. For instance, the tension between professional and academic mission is endemic in the Nordic region as well in other areas (Labaree, 2018), and teacher education institions in the Nordic region still struggle with the balance between rigour and relevance. This struggle is explored in Chaps. 4–11.