Exploring diversity in the relationships between teacher quality and job satisfaction in the Nordic countries-insights from TALIS 2013 and 2018

Abstract

Equity and quality are the common goals to strive for in the Nordic education systems. Yet the mechanisms through which the separate education systems approach these goals have become more diverse. The chapter provides evidence in support of the different facets of teacher quality, such as self-efficacy, as well as teacher-students relations concerning their importance for teachers' job satisfaction across the Nordic countries. Diversities, however, were also observed. The results from the TALIS 2013 model outlined two subgroups of the Nordic countries with similar mechanisms: the Norway-Sweden and the Denmark-Finland groups. No distinctive group was found in the TALIS 2018 results, producing more country-specific patterns, such as the importance of social utility value for Norway, adverse classroom composition in Sweden or teacher effective professional development positively impacting the personal and social utility values of teachers in Finland. These observed diversities and changing patterns may find their reasons in the gradually dissolved unity of the Nordic model by the different reform actions taken in recent years, such as in the example of Sweden, and in the long-term prerequisites for the teaching profession, where Finland is the country that stands out.