ABSTRACT
Teachers have traditionally been regarded as academics with the social and professional mandate of bringing democratic values of individual and social freedom and responsibility further to new generations. In this chapter, I will raise the question if this mandate is opposed to a dominating neo-liberalist ideology of education. I will present, investigate and further develop a conceptual framework for analysis of teaching and learning used in Norwegian and Danish teacher education. The aim of the framework is to strengthen teachers’ ability to analyse, criticize and develop educational, teaching- and learning processes, along with their ability for critique of educational epistemologies and ideologies.
I will argue that one-sided neo-liberalist educational ideology, with roots in a rationalist concept of knowledge, can make it difficult for teachers to perform their work in line with their social and democratic responsibilities as professionals and academics. Epistemological, ideological analysis and critique, related to practical teaching, is a fundamental part of teacher professionalism, a professionalism that is necessary to meet today's ideological challenges.
