Gymnasielärare - i tid och otid. En studie om gymnasielärares uppfattningar rörande relationen mellan arbetstid och arbetsuppgifter.

Abstract

During many conversations with teachers over the last years, I have noticed that the theme of these chats often circles around their working time and problems that are related to it. Studies have been made on this subject, e.g. Lärarnas Riksförbund (2009), that somehow confirms that problems do exist concerning teachers working time. Since I am becoming a teacher myself , I find it interesting as well as imortant to investigate this subject more closely. My intention with this study has been to contribute to a better understanding of upper secondary school teachers’ perceptions about the relation between working time and working tasks.

Since my purpose is to investigate perceptions, as a part of peoples’ lifeworlds, I have been using the qualitative method with a phenomenographic approach (Stukát: 2005; Esaisson, Gilljam, Oscarsson, Wängnerud: 2007). I have have interviewed 6 teachers (3 male and 3 feamale), all on the same school, with different ages and education subjects. I have analyzed the digitally captured material after having it transcribed. In the analysis I have been using eclectic analysis since different kinds of interpreting will be present.

During the analysis it has become clear that the informants percieve that there are too many tasks to deal with within the working time. They treat that fact in different ways, some resulting in lots of work at home for the sake of the students, while a few instead try to let the working time rule the amount of tasks to be done, for the sake of their helath. Common for all informants are that they percieve a loss of quality in the education caused by the intense streching of the so called tension field between working time and tasks. This study could serve as a ringing bell for both teachers and school managements.