Aside from the poor behaviour discussed in my previous post, what actually happens in a Swedish classroom? Here’s one new teacher’s first day:
Exhausted after four hours introduction. One student was taken away with a (female) guardian to be fingerprinted by the Migration Agency, another didn’t know how many siblings he had (counted as far as fifteen, not clear whether he himself was included). NO ONE in Class 7D knew what a craftsman was, and one wondered when we would ‘tell our memories from the summer holidays’ (which I hadn’t planned to do). All wanted to know where their locker was placed and all except two wanted an ice cream then the van came to visit.”
It would be crass to take a trainee’s first day and pretend it reflects the entirety of Swedish classroom practice. It does offer tantalising hints about the constraints of curriculum and pedagogy in Sweden however, whether in…
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The Echo Chamber 