ABSTRACT
Teachers have been a central topic in education history, but with a focus on the education dimension alone, reflecting our present understanding of teachers as having only one occupation (in the classroom), and paid in cash as their sole income. However, the early nineteenth-century Nordic teacher in rural areas was expected to cultivate and farm a small piece of land in connection with his teaching obligations. This rural teacher, who in most or all cases was a male until the middle of the century, was to be a pedagogical pioneer in agriculture, a bridge builder between the government’s reforms and peasants. This chapter aims to contribute to our understanding of Nordic teachers’ sociocultural history by focusing on their occupational and social roles. The chapter highlights the cultural history of teachers: their shared values, common ideals and roles, and how they fulfilled their roles in local communities as educators and role models. Many of these role-model teachers were educated at the teacher training institutions that arose during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth century. This chapter also contributes to the history of the early professionalisation of teachers and the recruiting pattern outlined by these institutions.
