Varieties of teacher expertise in teaching Danish language and literature in lower secondary schools

Abstract

In this study we seek to explore how expert teachers mediate the many influences on their practice. The research we report is set in the context of lower secondary school teaching of Danish language and literature. Findings suggest that teacher expertise can be conceptualized by a set of ‘role types’ based on the dimensions of goals, norms, discourses and practices. Teachers seem to move between different types of teacher expertise according to the perceived demands of the situation, mediating policy requirements, practicing interpretations of educational goals, and administering classroom discourses and practices in ways which sometimes differ from those intended.