L rarprofessionen och arbetet med livskunskap i grundskolan

Teacher profession and life competence education. Although withouta national curriculum Life Skills Training or Life Competence Education is a new topic, which has become a rather frequent activity in many Swedish compulsory schools over the past years. What is done and the purposes behind it differ from school to school, but in practice schools often work with specific manuals or programs that are developed in order to strengthen young peoples’ self-esteem as well as social and emotional development. These activities may be questioned whether they are promising fora fora teacher’s democratic fostering task. Furthermore, there are reasons to scrutinize how this type of activity may influence the teacher profession, ideas of teacher competence and professional development. These issues are addressed in this article through an exploratory case study conducted at a compulsory school where Life Competence Education is a central activity. The issues are further discussed in relation to previous research on teacher role and teachers’ professional development in contemporary society.