Let’s talk about teacher education! Analysing the media debates in 2016-2017 on teacher education using Sweden as a case

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to research on the media’s role in naming and framing the debate about teacher education using Sweden as a case study. This is done by analysing how articles published in four major Swedish newspapers from 2016–2017 define: a) the challenges/strengths of current teacher education and b) the kind of teacher professionalism that the descriptions give rise to. Using content analysis, the study shows that the media mainly emphasises the negative aspects of teacher education and, in particular, scepticism of the scientific basis where postmodernism is regarded as problematic and needing to be replaced by cognitive science due to the insufficient knowledge of teachers and student teachers, the shortage of teachers in the country as a whole and disciplinary problems in the classroom. The debate is primarily fuelled by those outside the field of educational research, who argue that psychology and neuroscience scholars should have the power to define the content of education, which indicates a view of professionalism as outside-in professionalism. There are more nuanced approaches to teacher education as well, but these are marginalised.