L raren som konkurrensmedel

The teacher as a means of competition. Source of knowledge, supportive coach or non-existent? The purpose of the article is toshow empirically how upper-secondary schools describe, understand andpresent teachers in their external communication. The ambition is to demonstrate to what extent and how teachers’ competencies are stressed by local school management in a competitive setting. Swedish upper-secondary schools’ Internet communication to external audiences is content analyzed. Private and public schools are compared. The study finds that teachers’ qualities and competencies are rarely communicated. Other aspects are emphasized. When teachers are mentioned, it is usually as a depersonalized category whose function is stressed, for example the role of the teacher in the pedagogical concept or idea that the school adopts. In practice, no differences between private and public schools are found. The findings of the study can be understood in the context of the ongoing discussion on teachers’ status. By being “non-existent” in the external communication, the image of the teachers as a group with low professional status is sustained.