(edit title) Teacher Training in Sweden Options

[Daevyd]

Does anyone know the route into becoming a qualified teacher in Sweden?

I've been asked a few questions on this subject, but find I certainly don't have a complete grasp of the situation.

The person in question has an MA (Languages) and another MA (Conflict Studies) but would like to get into primary teaching, and perhaps something to do with special needs children down the line.

As I understand it, one can get a BA or MA in Education (140-220 credits) or a Diploma in Education (120 credits). According to Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm, a course of 140-220 credits would take 3.5-5.5 years to complete.

Is a Swedish Diploma in Education the same as the British PGCE? If so, is it also a one-year programme? Bearing in mind that the person in question already has two MA's, is it actually possible to become a fully qualified teacher upon completion of just the diploma, if it is like a PGCE, or is it necessary to do a BA/MA in the subject?

[Puffin]

I think that this person might need to do a BEd (140 credits or 3½ years) if they want to get into primary teaching as they would need to show that they are capable of covering the national curriculum core subjects of Swedish, English, Maths and social studies (history/geography/other social sciences) and have University level course in these areas - it does not sound as though their previous degrees would equip them to do this.

If the wanted to get inte secodary or A-level teaching then the route would be a lot easier as credit could be trasfered the previous studies as subject knowledge and the person would be eligible to to just take the teaching couses (pedagogik) - in a similar way to a PGCE but 6 months longer - then it takes just 1½ years (60p) to be awarded a teaching certificate. The person could certainly teach languages ( a shortage area) and possibly social studies depending on what was included in confliect studies.

I had a friend who did this: he had a BA in German and 120p of social sciences (politiks and economics). He took the 3 term teaching courses (pedagogik A,B, &C) and is now teaches german and social studies in a 6th form college.

To get inte special needs teaching it is necessary to take the courses in Specialpedagogik - however you would need to have completed at least the first 2 terms of pedagogy courses to be eligible.

You don't say whether the person is an immigrant or not - but if so you would need to have university entrance level Swedish i.e Svenska B from gymnasiet or TISUS.

Hope this helps

[Kitten]

I have a BA in Humanities and a MA in English and I got hired as an English teacher at the gymnasium level without having to go through any extra training here in Sweden.

I did have plenty of prior teaching experience, however. Plus, I went through a year of teacher training when I was in graduate school, including an apprenticeship with a mentor teacher.

I guess my employer thought that was enough training.

[Puffin]

I think you can do this as a gymnasiet teacher - however OP was talking about Primary (lågstadiet) and there there is more emphasis on being qualified - especially if you are going to have to teach children to read in Swedish.

In fact the new education minister has talked about introducing legislation to make it illegal for schools to hire unqualified teachers for the 7-16 age group.

[Puffin]

Diploma in Education (120 credits).

These diplomas are not the same as a PGCE - they tend to be for either :
school careers advisors (Studie- och yrkesvägledarutbildningen) or

teachers of vocational qualifications at 6th form colleges who have substantial experience of working in the industry.

[Daevyd]

Thanks Puffin for that valuable information.

If there was anyone here who'd know the answers, I figured it'd certainly be you.

Kitten, my experience was much the same years ago. Make sure that they are paying you the appropriate salary though for the MA; where I worked only three of us had MA's and the teachers' union informed me that I'd be entitled to more SEK - something which management intially didn't "take into consideration". Many teachers at this level don't have MA's. However, as Puffin mentioned, it's a bit of a different game when it comes qualifications in primary teaching and what's expected.

I've read some things recently which suggest that even the teacher training itself is about to undergo some reform because the teachers are lacking certain skills at primary level and it's "seemingly" too easy to pass most of the assignments. Does anyone know anything else about these ideas?

[Puffin]

I think that the changes have to do with different forms of assessment for teacher training. Several recent government studies have shown that the methods of assessment on teacher training courses are not very rigourous.

On some courses teachers do not have to do ANY formal written exams - all the assessment is in the form of group tasks, essays or "home exams" (where you take the exam questions home and hand them in a day or two later). The studies found that there was a risk that students could glide through courses with very little knowledge. A separate study of BEd students' Bachelor dissertations found that the standards were very low and a quarter that passed should have been failed - and some that were awarded 1sts should also have failed :shock:

This has some elements of truth - I went on a teacher training course to update my skills and knowledge of Sweden and one student "passed" a 4 week group essay of 10,000 words - with a 1st - despite being absent for the entire period due to a major emmergency operation. Another student who deliberately skived off by abandoning his group to take a bus driving job did not pass at once - depite the course organiser putting pressure on the group to allow hom to pass with them! His punnishment? To write 3 sides on one element connected to his group's essay subject - obviously a fitting replacement for 4 weeks work - NOT :roll:

If you can read Swedish there is a good summary of the main problems
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=592444m

[Daevyd]

Thanks for the info and links, Puffin. It makes for a very interesting read.

What do you think about the international MA programmes on offer from a host of Swedish universities?

[Puffin]

They can be good if you pick a reputable University to take a Masters such as Uppsala, Lund, Gothenburg, Stockholm or Umeå (plus of course technical Universities such as KTH for MSC/Handels for MBA etc).

Other Universities can also be OK but tend not to be specialists in every subject so you would need to research the department and teaching staff to see what their specialisms are.

You do need to beware of some of the "new Universities" and colleges who use international Masters as a strategy for holding up their student numbers and therefore central government grants. These tend to offer nearly everyone who applies a place regardless of the standard of their Bachelor degrees and abilities to communicate in English - would you want a Masters from Bolton University?

[Daevyd]

You do need to beware of some of the "new Universities" and colleges who use international Masters as a strategy for holding up their student numbers and therefore central government grants. These tend to offer nearly everyone who applies a place regardless of the standard of their Bachelor degrees and abilities to communicate in English - would you want a Masters from Bolton University?

Very good point.

Do you think Mälardalen University falls into that category?

[Puffin]

Very good point.

Do you think Mälardalen University falls into that category?

I haven't heard anything negative about the International Masters at Mälardalen - one of the problems is that most of the international programmes have local admissions (unlike undergraduate degree programmes) - therefore it is not always easy to see what levels of qualifications were accepted onto the course.

For undergraduate degree programmes VHS has a database of how many people applied and what the lowest grades accepted were - so you can see while courses are very unpopular with Swedish students and attracted very few applicants or accpted those who had not passed all their gynmasiet courses. (http://www.vhs.se/templates/AntagPage.aspx?id=955)

I don't know whether you realise that Mälardalen is not a full university but is a "högskola" (these often call themselves University colleges in English literture to attract overseas students)- a bit like the old polytechnics in the UK - often specialising in technical and vocational degrees. This does not necessarily make any difference to the quality of the course - but in some cases the quality of staff and the course may be lower, less popular courses may attract less able students and sometimes degrees have less status than the traditional universities. However a lot depends on which subject etc - so you may need to research the course.

There was also a suggestion a few years ago that the Bologna process might result in some of the "högskolor" becoming - mainly - undergraduate teaching centres up to BA/BSc level as many departments lacked the depth to offer the new 2 year masters degrees - but I have no knowledge on where Mälardalen stands.

Hope this helps - if you are interested in looking up BEd/MEd courses then that can be done via the VHS database.

[Streja]

Making it illegal to hire non-qualified teachers in the age group 7-16...

It can't be done. That's a goodbye to all Spanish lessons then...

[Roowhip]

?? Are you saying there are no qualified Spanish teachers :?

[Puffin]

Making it illegal to hire non-qualified teachers in the age group 7-16...

It can't be done. That's a goodbye to all Spanish lessons then...

?? Are you saying there are no qualified Spanish teachers :?

Perhaps not all - but there is a chronic shortage of language teachers in Sweden so many school solve the problem by employing those who may be technically obehörig - i.e lacking qualifications that are recognised in Sweden/lacking a gymnasiet Swedish languagecertificate

[Streja]

Exactly Puffin...some might even have studied Spanish at university, but don't have the actual pedagogy certificate. I have it now...after three years of studying while working...phew!