| Our modern society and therefore our education are developing constantly and making new demands on the professionalism of teachers. Teachers themselves are key players for successful educational development; teachers are the core of implementation of educational reforms in the classroom and at school. For some time the government has been focusing on the so called "professional space for teachers". Professional space in the sense of: "internal control of the teacher regarding the design and implementation of their own education and the educational and quality policy of the school". The teacher is seen as a professional who feels responsible and takes the responsibility to work with colleagues on the content and shape of this professional space, resulting in strengthening their own professionalism (their own education in the classroom) and the quality of school education. We expect that teachers can best utilize the professional space if they see themselves as, and act as, change agents. In the literature different descriptions of change agents are found, however, a consistent picture of the teacher as change agent is lacking. The purpose of this study is at first to clarify and form a consistent picture of the teacher as change agent and secondly to identify promoting and inhibiting factors to the functioning of teachers as change agents, both from the perspective of primary schools and professional primary teacher education. We assume that within the functioning of teachers as change agents, a distinction can be drawn between prospective teachers, beginning teachers and experienced teachers. |
