Side by Side or Side-lined?

Abstract

The idea of a change in educational practise is a central aspect in Norwegian curricular reforms in this millennium. Several governmental initiatives were introduced as a means to bring about such changes. Teacher-student ratio is among these initiatives. Large scale research projects were initiated by educational authorities (2016-2023) in order to explore the effects of increased teacher-student ratio, and a national norm for student-teacher-ratio was implemented in 2018. Still, research evidence remains inconclusive as to the effects of this initiative. In order to better understand this inconclusiveness, our article explores six Year 2 Norwegian literacy classrooms with two teachers in the class. We find that the teachers seem to fall into accustomed forms of collaboration and roles, with homeroom teachers who “own” the class, and co-teachers who take on the waiting and watching role before taking out specific students. We also find a somewhat counter intuitive use of organisational forms together with a tendency towards “shift work”. Co-teaching clearly represents pedagogic opportunities as well as challenges concerning ways to share professional responsibility and roles, and we discuss why the potential is not fully released.