Professionella aktörer eller folkets företrädare? : En kvalitativ undersökning i lärarnas roll i en kommunal skolnedläggningsdebatt

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay is to examine how teachers view their role in an intense school closuredebate regarding a couple of small rural schools in a Swedish municipal, as well as whataffects their standpoint. Based on previous studies regarding the symbolic value of schools inrural areas, the essay hypothesizes that teachers working and/or living in affected rural areasexhibits a stronger citizen agent narrative than teachers working in non-affected urban areas,who are more likely to exhibit a state agent narrative. The results show that teachers viewtheir role differently; teachers who worked and lived in the affected rural area exhibitedstronger political dissatisfaction, and a stronger citizen agent narrative, than teachers whoworked in non-affected areas, who generally exhibited a state agent narrative. The mainfinding of this study is that a majority of the teachers explained their level of engagement byreferring to whether they were personally affected or not; teachers living in threatenedcommunities were, for this reason, the only teachers officially engaged in the protests.