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This article explores how teachers in Finland, Norway, and the United States reflect on their professional space for decision-making when planning. Various planning activities are at the core of teaching practice, and contextual factors are also at play. Teachers' reflections on decision-making when planning might therefore be expected to vary. Hence, this study explores "in what ways" the opportunities to make decisions for planning may vary across the three country contexts. Using "professional space" as an analytical lens, the analysis shows, firstly, that teachers' opportunities to make decisions about planning take place in a multidimensional space between professional autonomy and external control. Secondly, teachers' opportunities to make decisions about planning are contextually situated in time and space.

In this study, we explore teachers' professional space as an alternative to, and/or expansion of earlier conceptualizations of teacher autonomy. Professional space is here understood both as an objective space with e.g., physical, juridical, economic features, and as the teachers' subjective negotiation of this objective space, where teachers are viewed as producers of professional space (subjective space). Based on an analysis of storyline interviews with teachers from Finland, Norway and the US we argue that professional space, both as an empirical entity and as a theoretical construct, opens up exploration of external and internal factors, as well as the multi-dimensionality of the factors over time and beyond physical space which influence teachers' decision-making capabilities.

This article examines relations to knowledge among novice teachers educated in a research-based program in Finland and a general professional program in Norway. The curricula of the 2 programs differ in distinct ways with regard to selection and organization of knowledge. We ask whether such differences also play out in the relations to knowledge of the 2 groups of teachers. Bernstein's concepts of knowledge discourses, classification, and framing are employed to analyze in-depth interviews with 12 teachers. The analysis revealed many similarities on the surface, but a closer examination of the teachers' use of professional language revealed significant differences. The Finnish teachers used more specialized language to frame their conceptions, and their knowledge relations reflected a stronger classification and framing than those of the Norwegian teachers. We discuss how these differences may be related to their educational programs, and the possible implications for the teachers' professional identities.

This article examines policy making processes in the area of teacher education (TE) in Finland and Norway. Particular attention is given to the roles different actors play in these processes and the potential effects of their involvement on the TE programs in the two countries. Contemporary policy processes are analyzed through a set of interviews with profiled and experienced policy makers in the area in question. The analyses show that TE policy processes in Norway rely heavily on political actors and changes in political conditions, while Finnish TE policy processes rely more on academic expertise in the development of TE policies.

This article examines policy making processes in the area of teacher education (TE) in Finland and Norway. Particular attention is given to the roles different actors play in these processes and the potential effects of their involvement on the TE programs in the two countries. Contemporary policy processes are analyzed through a set of interviews with profiled and experienced policy makers in the area in question. The analyses show that TE policy processes in Norway rely heavily on political actors and changes in political conditions, while Finnish TE policy processes rely more on academic expertise in the development of TE policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]