Teachers’ basic philosophies and the curriculum

This article gives an account of a study concerning the relationship between the teachers’ basic views and the basic philosophy of the curriculum for Swedish comprehensive schools, the Läroplan of 1969. The study, based on interpretations of texts and verbal statements, finds the concept of solidarity in the curriculum important. An analysis of common features in the categories that are in favour of this basic philosophy shows it is the idea of a pupil‐centred school that attracts teachers with a socialist ideology. It supports solidarity. The main reason for the negative attitude of the teachers is that they see a pupil‐centred school as a shift of power reducing the teachers’ traditional role and disturbing the professional code. Those categories have strong naturalistic elements, wanting the pupils to be in many ways like boy scouts. Teachers with a so called partial ideology‐poorly developed outlook on society and on man ‐ seem to be dominated by their professional code. The vaguer the ideology or philosophy of life, the more dominant the professional code.