Teachers scheduled classes in the subject Art and crafts - The background for the existence of an outdated teaching load in lower secondary school

Abstract

A teacher in the subject Art and crafts in lower secondary schools in Norway have less time for preparation of his teaching than teachers within other subjects. In this article we are looking for the background of this differentiation of teachers' scheduled classes, and find it in the ‘Teaching load Commission's report’ (Lesepliktutvalget) from 1977. There is, however, no good reasons why subjects receive different teaching load. Ten years later the committee appointed to consider teaching staff's future working conditions (UFA-utvalget) adds descriptions from each subjects curriculum as a foundation for the estimation of their teaching load. Even after the introduction of the curriculum L97, where the contents of the subject Art and crafts was made more explicit and the teachers got a heavier workload, the differences in teachers' scheduled classes were not changed. Teachers have called attention to this imbalance, but the teaching load has remained unchanged. School leaders, however, have expressed that the difference in teaching load is fair. In this article we discuss what can be the background for the maintenance of this outdated teaching load.