1 Introduction

The shortage of teachers in Sweden has been an accelerating societal problem in the past decade. With rapid and historically unexpected development, school authorities and other actors have been caught off guard. According to Bertilsson (2018), the supply of teachers is a challenge of historical proportions. However, the shortage of teachers is not just a Swedish phenomenon. Shortages of fully trained teachers are common in almost all European countries and in the USA (Aragon, 2016; Federičová, 2020). As far as Europe is concerned, Federičová (2020) reported on the shortage in 19 countries. Her findings show that southern European countries experience very low rates of teacher turnover (in this text meaning leaving the profession), at about 15% on average, in comparison with northern countries, where turnover reached 37%. The two northern countries in the study were Sweden and Denmark. The turnover of teachers seems to have impacted both students and the economy. According to Ronfeldt et al. (2013), high rates of teacher turnover have an adverse impact on student achievement. School jurisdictions pay high costs to replace teachers who leave (Barnes et al., 2007; Hanushek et al., 2016).

The consequences of the teacher shortage affect first and foremost the Swedish school students and employees, but also other recipient groups in society such as parents, politicians, and other school staff. There are several explanations for the rapidly emerging shortage of teachers in Sweden, including different, overlapping, or similar explanations on different levels. Political reforms have played a crucial role in the issue. Several curriculum reforms and teacher education reforms during recent decades have changed the conditions for school actors. Changed and deteriorating work environments have led to many dropouts and the deteriorating status of the profession (Håkansson Lindqvist et al., 2021). Only between 11 and 26% of high school teachers believe that the teaching profession has a high status, according to an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) international study in TALIS (Skolverket, 2019d). The view of how the teaching profession is valued in society is also lower for Swedish teachers and principals (less than 10%) compared to other OECD countries (19% of EU teachers and 30% of EU school leaders) (Skolverket, 2014). The teaching profession also has relatively lower application pressure as a first choice in Sweden (59% of college graduates put it as a first choice) compared to other OECD countries (67%), which is also an indication of low status (Skolverket, 2019e).

There are also a number of possible solutions to deal with the problem, more or less accentuated depending on the target group. Not least, there are different voices in the media discussing how the problem should be handled (Hultén, 2019), for example, that the so-called “flum schoolFootnote 1” has to disappear, to introduce grades in the previous years, and to focus on order and good behavior in school and on other ideological foundations in the Swedish school system.

Many different actors have been involved in the debate: authorities, interest groups, politicians, trade unions, and student organizations, to name a few. An overall and complete solution in Sweden is in demand because no actor can solve the shortage of teachers alone; cooperation is necessary. What is demanded in the debate is a comprehensive national political solution to reverse the negative trend. A recent research review concluded that.

…the best way to make the teaching profession more attractive so that more people choose to study, staying or returning to the profession is to improve working conditions and ensure that the teaching profession meets expectations (Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien, 2020, p. 11).

Neither researchers nor school authorities have been particularly visible on this issue. Therefore, this study is based on the school authorities’ perceptions of the shortcoming and their proposals for measures to remedy it. School authorities—usually a municipality or a private school group—have an important position, as they have an overview of the problems at a structural level. They are also the actors who are significantly forced to handle, control, and lead the resulting situation to reasonable emergency solutions. They decide how the schools should work, ensure that the schools have the resources required and must constantly work to make the school better. School authorities have the overall responsibility for principals' work within the municipality or unit (if it is a private school authority). They have the responsibility for ensuring that education is conducted in accordance with the provisions of The Educational Act (Skollagen, 2010), regulations that have been issued on the basis of the act and the provisions for education that may be found in other statutes. However, there are differences between school principals in terms of how they manage their task with consequences for equality and individual students' rights to a good education (Ahnborg, 2017). A sharp critique is raised against school authorities not being sufficiently familiar with school activities, not following up on them, being poor at analyzing, and do not doing what needs to be done (Skolinspektionen, 2014).

With the support of the above, the aim of this study is thus to explore and explain the current state of the teacher shortage in Sweden and possible solutions from the view of school authorities. The results can provide important insights into and relevant explanations from the target group that handles this societal problem at the structural level in the school system. Thus, the voice of an important actor who has not been prominent in the debate will also be heard. The results can also provide knowledge and understanding for school authorities about the complex situation to determine a long-term, sustainable solution in their own regions.

2 Background

This chapter provides an overview of the current situation regarding the shortage of teachers, current needs, ongoing and future political initiatives, and organizational perspectives.

2.1 The current situation

Official statistics estimate that by 2033, there will be a shortage of about 45,000 teachers (Skolverket, 2019a), of which the largest shortages will be for subject teachers in upper secondary school, middle school teachers, and vocational teachers. Lack means “that there are not enough newly educated and fully trained teachers to meet the estimated need, not that there is a shortage of teachers to conduct teaching” (Skolverket, 2019a, p. 1). Other sources claim that there will be a shortage of almost 65,000 teachers by 2035 (Jaara Åstrand, 2019). The largest imbalance is calculated for subject teachers in upper secondary school, middle school teachers, and vocational teachers. Today, around 70% of teachers in compulsory school are educated and 81% in upper secondary school (Skolverket, 2019b); in other words, there is currently a 20–30% shortage of fully trained teachers in Swedish schools. The shortage of fully trained teachers varies greatly between school forms, between 25 and 85%, where the largest shortage is within special schools. The variation between subjects is also high. History and Swedish have the highest number of fully trained teachers, while the lowest number are in technology and Swedish as a second language. One staff group that has increased in the past year is teaching assistants, with a 25% increase from the previous years (Skolverket, 2020).

The lack of teachers in Sweden is not really a new phenomenon. It can be traced back to 1975—as far back as is possible—to find labor market forecasts (Sveriges Officiella statistik, 1975). That year there was a shortage of teachers in music, drawing, special needs, and crafts. As early as 1983, attention was drawn to the lack of teachers in mathematics and science (Sveriges Officiella statistik, 1983). The shortage of teachers has since then accelerated in each year according to the official statistics and has included more and more subjects and categories of teachers.

Teacher shortages could also be related to the age structure of Swedish teachers, which is alarming. Every fifth primary and secondary school teacher is 60 years or older and will thus retire in the near future. In Sweden’s regions, the proportion of teachers over the age of 60 is between 20 and 27%, while the number of teachers under the age of 30 amounts to approximately 4% (Berglin, 2019). This will also exacerbate the shortage of teachers.

The dropout rate in the profession is also high. Here, information differs between sources. The chairman of the teachers’ union claims that 38,000 teachers choose to leave the profession prematurely (Jaara Åstrand, 2019), whereas the ministers for education state, “Most teachers also choose to stay in the profession: about 92 percent of all trained teachers have a profession that wholly or partly matches their education” (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020c, p. 1). Closely linked to dropouts is staff mobility in the education sector, which amounted to 18% in 2019.

It is not just active teachers who drop out of the profession. A large number of students also drop out of teacher training. For example, one-third of Swedish subject teacher–students drop out in the 1st academic year (Universitetskanslersämbetet, 2019). Teacher education has been criticized in the media, according to Edling and Liljestrand (2019), where critics are skeptical of the scientific basis and postmodernism, which they believe should be replaced by cognitive science.

Over the past 30 years, the teaching profession has both changed and deteriorated. The reforms of teacher education have been implemented in parallel with reforms of the school system. A number of reforms around 1990 were significant, in particular decentralization (including the so-called municipalization in 1991), goal and performance management, and marketization (Lundström, 2019). Researchers describe this era as “a hustle and bustle of reform.” This intensive reform means that it is difficult to evaluate the effects and consequences of them and how they have affected practice in schools (Hanberg et al., 2016). According to the National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen, 2017), school authorities consider that one of the reforms, the career reform, has provided opportunities for teachers to develop a career, but at the same time, it has contributed to the deterioration of cohesion and opportunities for the cooperation of teachers. Career reform means that teachers can at different stages qualify their competence with both academic points and experience-based knowledge, which results in higher pay and increased responsibility. These reforms have created problems for recruitment in various ways. One example is that a teacher education is not compatible with the previous, which means that teachers cannot be hired. One example is that teacher certification has meant that many teachers do not get permanent employment and cannot set grades. Lundström (2019) claims that in this case, the system can be perceived as a counter-productive crowded policy space.

Two real deteriorations in daily work are that the average teaching time of primary and secondary school teachers has increased by 2 weeks per school year, and that in many schools, substitutes are no longer brought in when teachers are sick or need to take care of a baby (Skolvärlden, 2019).

It is not only experienced teachers who react to the workload. When newly graduated teachers start working, only 40% of them undergo an introductory period with a mentor, despite the fact that this is a requirement set forth by the Education Act and its regulations (Lärarnas Riksförbund, 2020). That the beginning period as a teacher is demanding, with insufficient introduction and a lack of mentors, is confirmed in Lundström’s (2019) study which describes newly graduated teachers’ experiences of high workload and stress. In summary, the causes of the problem are complex.

2.2 Needs and ongoing and upcoming investments

To meet the need, a 25% increase in the number of graduate teachers per year over the next 12 years is required. There are several reasons for this increased need. The population base is a significant cause. The number of children and students increased by 22% in the last 10 years (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020c).

Various initiatives from the current government are underway to overcome the shortage of teachers. Teacher training institutions comprising approximately 10,400 new full-time students have been expanded. Additionally, further expansion of supplementary pedagogical education (KPU) and permanent expansion of vocational teacher education have been proposed. A 28% increase is estimated in the number of students in teacher education since 2011. Another investment is further education of not yet fully trained teachers and preschool teachers (VAL), which is considered to have good prospects for expansion. Furthermore, a relatively new form of the distribution of teacher education has started in a number of teacher positions: work-integrated teacher education (AIL), where teachers can work and study at the same time during an extended study period (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020b).

The following planned initiatives to reform teacher education have been presented to the government: strengthening the link between theory and practice, strengthening practice in schools, increasing the supply of postgraduate teachers, and improving research-related teacher education (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020a). Concrete proposals from responsible ministers to attain more discipline in schools include, for example, a mobile phone ban during class time. It will also be easier to relocate school students who have threatened or subjected others to violence.

Also in international contexts, the Swedish government and authorities have participated in discussions and deliberations on how to support the teaching profession. One distinct example is The 2021 International Summit on the Teaching Profession, where the Swedish delegation mainly focused on how to value and support the teaching profession and support the well-being of teachers (OECD, 2021). The above-mentioned example shows that the Swedish government takes the problem seriously and seeks different solutions to it.

2.3 Other solutions in the debate

Various solutions, both traditional and radically new, to solve the shortage of teachers have been presented in the debate. A very radical new solution is to reduce the shortage of teachers with the help of teachers with artificial intelligence (AI teachers), who would not replace but relieve teachers in the school (Sundin and Aschan, 2018). Developments in artificial intelligence are accelerating, and the researchers predict that using AI teachers is a competitive advantage and will show up in the future PISA results. Distance learning means that teaching is interactive and takes place in real time using information and communication technology. The students are on the school premises together with a tutor. The main teacher, who works as the distance teacher, is at the same time somewhere else, with experimental activities in progress.

Another way of looking at recruitment potential is that about 20% of trained teachers work outside the education sector and could be attracted back to the industry (IFAU, 2018). The National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund, 2020) presented a broad solution that aims to reach the so-called teacher reserve and implement a supplementary teacher program (KLP). The aim of the proposal is to attract about half a million potential teachers to obtain a complete education. This includes the unauthorized, some 34,000 people who work outside the school but have teacher education and others who have some university education and can imagine becoming teachers. The proposal would replace today’s different and disparate paths to the teaching profession. Another proposal is to offer “65-plus” individually tailored services (i.e., use the skills of trained teachers as much as possible).

Alternative selections for teacher education to promote the use of locally determined selection criteria (using 1/3 of the places for locally based selection criteria; Universitets- och högskolerådet, 2018) are already being used at some higher education institutions—for example, in teacher education in dance and music.

Following an international outlook on the situation of Swedish teachers, Heller-Sahlgren (2018) also advocated the following three measures: (1) salary development, (2) teaching time in relation to total working time, and (3) the classroom environment.

2.4 Organizational perspectives

Both research and the general debate present the importance of creating good working conditions and creating jobs in order to get teachers to stay in the profession. As school authorities are responsible for organizing teachers' work environments, it is important to contextualize this aspect. Over the last two decades, a growing body of research has shown how the “character” of the workplace can influence the overall quality of teaching, teacher retention, and school improvement (Johnson et al., 2005, 2011). Even though the contexts of the school environment vary across countries, teacher retention is widely recognized as an important step toward avoiding teacher shortages (Van den Borre et al., 2021). Studies have pinpointed how the organizational characteristics of schools influence teachers’ career paths, including decisions about whether to stay in or leave the profession (Borman et al., 2017), but according to Perryman and Calvet (2020) workload is the most frequently cited reason for having left or for leaving in the future.

Good work environments seem crucial for teachers to remain in the profession (Ingersoll et al., 2017) and for their personal and professional effectiveness. Schools with strong professional environments have improved teachers´ effectiveness, over time, by 38% more than peers in schools with weak environments (Johnson et al., 2011). In addition, well-being and cooperation were promoted. In this work environment, instructional leadership which focuses on the core responsibility of a school, namely teaching and learning, seems to be a successful approach for teachers to help students achieve good results (Ingersoll et al., 2017). Direct links between the quality of school working environments and outcomes for students and teachers are demonstrated in a number of international studies (cf. Berry et al., 2019; Hattie). In other words, both students “results and teachers” well-being benefit if good work environments are created. This increases the probability that teachers will remain in the profession.

In summary, possible solutions compete between the perspectives of internal (i.e., to the school system) and external actors in Sweden.

3 Theoretical framework—policy enactment

This study assumes that school authorities interpret, reinterpret, and use policies that come from above in different ways, and the framing of the result may be inspired by policy enactment theory (Ball et al., 2012). School authorities´ actions and perceptions are shaped by the context in which they participate, while at the same time shaping their context through their practices. This dialectic of being created in a context and of creating the context in which one is involved is of great importance for the present study. Policy enactment includes the processes of interpretation and reinterpretation of educational policies. These processes are transformed into different types of actions¸ for example, unconscious, ignored, nonlinear, ad hoc solutions, and re-invention. In other words, there is a great capacity for action on the part of school authorities to interpret, reinterpret, or ignore the policy signals that come from superiors. The actors have both interpretive and action power and participate independently in policy development themselves. Institutional, organizational, economic, political, and societal contexts are also important (Taylor et al., 1997). How school authorities meet and link into the local circumstances, and it becomes important to make basic political governance visible. New policy will be interpreted, reformulated, and transformed based on how school authorities perceive what needs to be preserved and what needs to be changed to address the shortage of teachers.

Framing the results in light of policy enactment theory, the relation between policy and practice from the school authorities' perspective can be clarified, but also how policy is interpreted and re-contextualized in this specific context. On this basis, we want to contribute in this article to a continued discussion about school authorities' perceptions of the current crisis and help to clarify connections between internal and external explanations and solutions to teacher workforce problems. As school authorities have the ultimate legal responsibility for their own school unit, it is of greatest interest to investigate how they handle the shortage of teachers and interpret, reinterpret, and use upcoming policies.

4 Design

Aiming to describe school authorities’ experiences with the teacher shortage, we used a descriptive qualitative design for our study. The overall aim was to explore and explain the current state of the teacher shortage and possible solutions from the perspective of school authorities in Sweden.

The research questions are as follows:

  1. 1.

    What are the regional and national tendencies concerning the teacher shortage within the next 5 years?

  2. 2.

    What regional and national solutions do school authorities propose in the short and long term?

The empirical data come from a web survey with background questions and open questions about the current situation of the teacher shortage and their views on solutions for the future. Respondents answered in their own words, which we subsequently subjected to inductive thematic content analysis involving scrutiny only of the text.

4.1 Participants and process

This study was based on answers from 55 school authorities in Sweden via a web survey using the Netigate survey accounting program. The respondents came from all over the country and from municipalities of different sizes. The survey was based on group selection; therefore, no dropout of individuals was included in the survey. Only surveys with complete answers were processed and analyzed. The web survey was sent to 12 regional networks for school authorities for participation. Twelve of Sweden's universities have special departments and regional development networks, which is a collaboration forum for municipalities, independent preschools, and schools and the university. In each network, the municipality is represented by a school authority. It is estimated that the survey reached 150 school authorities out of 290. Of these 150 people, 55 answered the survey. Therefore, the sample is considered a convenience sample.

The informants who answered the survey, however, came from municipalities both large and small as well as rural areas. All participating persons were informed of the project’s aims and current ethical principles of research (Vetenskapsrådet, 2017). Data were collected in the fall of 2020. All responses were compiled into a single text unit consisting of 20 A4-sized pages of text in 12-point Times New Roman using Microsoft Word. Responses spanned five lines of text on average but varied by a few words.

4.2 Thematic analysis

Data were analyzed using inductive thematic content analysis, which is a method for systematic and gradual classification of data to identify patterns and themes more easily. Content analysis of open answers showed thematic differences (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). The analysis started with several readings of the data to gain a sense of the content. The analysis occurred in four steps: (1) WeFootnote 2 read through the text several times to get a sense of the content; (2) we divided the text into meaning units (i.e., words, sentences, or paragraphs with the same content), guided by the aim of the study and the research questions, and condensed them; and (3) we compared the condensed meaning units and sorted them into categories based on similarities and differences in content (see Table 1). We read the entire text (analysis unit) repeatedly to gain an understanding. Based on sentences or phrases, we condensed the content into categories that reflected the central message. These subcategories constituted the manifest content of the texts that were ultimately used to find categories (Krippendorf, 2019).

Table 1 Example of inductive data analysis
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Finally, as the researchers and authors of this article, we met and discussed the analysis thoroughly until we reached a consensus. This resulted in further refinement of themes, which resulted in a final thematization (Figs. 1 and 2).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Thematic map of tendencies. The blue ovals correspond to the five main categories, and the gray ovals correspond to the subcategories

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Thematic map of possible solutions. The blue ovals correspond to the five main categories, and the gray ovals correspond to the subcategories

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Inductive coding is, by definition, not tied to a theoretical framework (Braun and Clarke, 2006), so the coding is driven by people’s responses. Therefore, a theoretical framework was not considered when developing the web survey. Instead, we wanted an authentic account of the school authorities’ perspectives on the upcoming situation to compare the results with research and official statistics and, at a later stage, with the results of other countries.

4.3 Trustworthiness

To achieve trustworthiness, we formed a purposeful sample based on selection criteria to enrich the variations in the phenomena being studied. We have described the different steps taken during analysis and the research process, as well as presented verbatim quotations in the results, all of which contribute to the trustworthiness and credibility of the findings and enable readers to assess their validity (Polit and Beck, 2008). To ensure credibility as researchers, we worked together closely throughout the analysis (Krippendorff, 2019). If data were based on interviews, more in-depth answers could be obtained. The study's limitation is that it is based on 55 Swedish school authorities' perceptions of the teacher shortage.

5 Results and analysis

The results obtained from the analysis are presented in the order of the research questions. In Figs. 1 and 2, we present an overview of the main categories and subcategories found to answer the research questions. The results from the thematic analysis are presented thereafter.

5.1 Regional and national tendencies within the next 5 years

In the answers from the first research question, concerning regional and national tendencies within the next 5 years in terms of the teacher shortage according to school authorities, we found three main themes: the acceleration problem, difficulties in finding fully trained teachers, and mental attitudes (see Fig. 1).

One of the main themes, difficulties in finding fully trained teachers, refers to teachers having to be fully trained and certified. This category indicates a formal eligibility. Teachers must have a certification to become permanent employees and to be allowed to set grades. The respondents pointed to this fact and indicated that it causes two major problems: (a) The teachers who are fully trained are overloaded with increasing responsibility, for example with grading, and (b) a large number of non-academically trained teachers lead to lower quality in schools and teaching. A quote may illustrate this:

A great shortage of certified teachers leads to the certified teachers having to take greater responsibility for several classes and lead the untrained teachers. This is to ensure the quality of teaching and grading.

Furthermore, the answers point to accelerating problems from several different aspects: geographical areas, different teachers’ professions, specific subjects, and personnel problems. This category, unlike the previous one, points to an ongoing process that is alarming. Problems finding fully trained teachers in some low socioeconomic areas and rural schools are palpable. The teacher categories that have the largest recruitment problems are teachers in school educare centers and preschool teachers. Subjects for which it is particularly difficult to recruit teachers are mathematics and science, as well as handicrafts and modern languages.

Concerning personnel problems, the answers point to retirement, dropouts of both teachers and students, sick leave, and the increasing student base. All the above factors create a complexity in the problem of the teacher shortage. A telling quote from a respondent may summarize the situation:

…a large number of uneducated people, shortcomings in the equality of students, increased workload on fully trained teachers, passivity from employers who do not invest in finding solutions, prioritizing funds for training teachers in a work-integrated teacher education that fills actual gaps in existing organizations, and an insufficiently pragmatic approach from the university in problem solving. A crisis commission is needed at national and regional level to work with the issue; the Education Act is treated as a step where the student’s right to quality-assured teaching is not taken seriously enough.

Another theme that the respondents pointed to was mental attitude, partly toward teachers in general and partly toward knowledge and education. The teachers’ profession is questioned by various actors, which is harmful for the whole profession and its status. The answers also included fears of a tendency to “despise knowledge.” The answers indicate that there are other actors who in a negative way interfere in the debate and thus create a negative image of the profession. Here is one example from the empirical data:

There has been a shift in power within the school context which, for example, manifests itself in parents becoming demanding and feeling entitled to decide what the right way is for working and/or intervening for their own and others' children.

The respondents demand positive messages about the teaching profession. “We need front figures who can make good publicity for a rather depressed profession” is a telling comment. The mental pressure from external actors is, above all, not what newly graduated teachers have prepared for. Regarding mental attitudes, respondents also mentioned that it does not pay much to train as a teacher because, according to one respondent, there is “…educational contempt and you can work as an unauthorized person with a reasonably good salary.”

5.2 Solutions for the future

Concerning the second research question, about regional and national solutions within the next 5 years in terms of the teacher shortage according to school authorities, five main themes emerged: higher salaries, flexible solutions for becoming teachers, higher status, better working environment, and “others.”

By far, the most common answer was that higher salaries are a crucial part of dealing with the shortage of teachers. Although today’s teacher salaries are considered quite high,Footnote 3 even higher salaries are necessary for both teachers and principals. When higher wages are advocated, it is in combination with other efforts. The following quote may illustrate the salary situation:

Higher salaries are a cure in the near future, but what is really needed is a belief in the school, setting the educators’ mission high, valuing competence and professionalism, and increasing the school’s autonomy.

The salary situation also promotes relocation of teachers between workplaces and regions, because teachers often take the jobs that pay the most. In other words, there is competition between municipalities for fully trained teachers.

Another theme was to create flexible solutions for those who already have a foundation to build on to both validate their knowledge and create “fast tracks.” There are certainly already some such programs in Sweden for further training of teachers (VAL), further training of foreign teachers (ULV), and additional teacher training (KPU), but these must be supplemented, and the throughput must increase. This is how a respondent expressed himself:

Another concrete proposal was offering individuals from other professions with relevant competence the opportunity for validation of knowledge and a shorter path to the teaching profession. “Educate the uneducated who have good references within the school…Make it easier to make career changes through validation.” However, the importance of such fast tracks not being at the expense of the quality of education was emphasized. It should also be emphasized that there was skepticism toward shortened education, as this risk undermining the content of the profession.

The theme of higher status for the teaching profession was also a common response from the informants. It is partly about creating a culture and social climate in which the teaching profession is valued, and partly about highlighting positive aspects of the profession in the media and everyday life. The following is a telling quote from one respondent:

[B]ut what is really needed is a belief in the school, set the educators’ mission high, value the competence and professionalism, and increase the school’s autonomy. The whole community needs to stand behind the school so that the educators feel uplifted and respected.

Tangential to higher status is the theme of a better working environment, from working in the classroom to all administrative tasks, decreasing stress, implementing digital solutions, and reducing the number of children per class. Other areas emphasized were support functions, working conditions, and skill competences. Support functions are about creating additional professional groups within the school, such as mentors, student coaches, and teaching assistants, partly to make teachers’ everyday lives easier, and partly to involve more adults in the schools. Comments concerned working conditions, good leadership, work climate, physical and mental well-being, and attractiveness of the workplace. The following two quotes may exemplify this:

We need national priorities in the work environment, so you see the profession as fun and strengthening, which you do not get today. It is mostly stress and bad conditions.

…a good job with a good pedagogical leader is most important in the long run—that you as a teacher have the chance to further your education to feel that you are developing and thus can lead the collegial learning at your school.

Solutions that could facilitate ease in teachers’ everyday lives, such as digital solutions, fewer teaching hours, reduced number of pupils in the classroom, and two-teacher systems, were also described. Opportunities for teachers to develop in the profession were concretized with, for example, various career paths, further education, and collegial learning. Other themes included proposals for closer collaboration between universities and schools, better research connections for teachers, and more flexible teaching opportunities, such as distance education.

One reflection is that only three comments mentioned the historical development within Swedish schools regarding all the many policy implementations.

6 Discussion and conclusion

In this concluding chapter, the results of the study are first summarized followed by conclusions.

6.1 Discussion of the outcome

This study dealt with the teacher shortage in Sweden from the perspective of school authorities. The results of this study provide an overview of 55 school authorities’ views on the shortage of teachers in Sweden, as well as possible solutions from the actors legally closest to the business in the short and long term. Policy enactment theory is used in study to understand and interpret internal and external explanations and solutions to teacher workforce problems.

According to the empirical results, a significant concern for the serious situation within the next 5 years can be deduced. School authorities largely described the picture that emerges from national statistics (Skolverket, 2019a, b, c, 2020), namely shortages in specific subjects and certain teacher categories, as well as regional differences. Personnel problems such as dropouts, stress, and workload are also taken seriously. Attitudes about the teaching profession that appears in the media are evident, according to school authorities. Critical voices degrade the status of the profession. This was also pointed out in the research (e.g., Edling and Liljestrand, 2019, which indicates that it is mostly the negative voices and voices from outside the field that is heard. Even teachers themselves see their status as very low in society and their perceptions of professional status are lower than in many other OECD countries (Skolverket, 2014; 2019d). Responsible ministers point out that the teaching profession should become more attractive but do not suggest how the general attitude toward the profession can be changed (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020a, b, c). Related to the theme of mental attitudes, according to the participants, was also the public’s attitude about Swedish schools in general. Hultén (2019) also pointed out how the question of knowledge has divided the view of what a Swedish school is, reduced to a “flum school” by some actors. Simplified or stereotypical notions are a problem in this context. In summary, the answers to the first research questions were not real news, and the answers are consistent, and no clear internal explanations of the school authorities' responsibilities could be found in the empirical data.

Answers to the second research question, concerning what regional and national solutions school authorities propose in the short and long term, showed the following overarching themes: higher salaries, flexible solutions for becoming teachers, higher status, and better working environments.

Higher salaries could be seen as surprising because teachers’ salaries have increased over the last 10 years, but notably, it concerns special teacher groups, for example, subject teachers and those who have been commissioned as first teachers. However, this increase has not applied to the same extent to preschool teachers and teachers in school educare centers. The government has drawn attention to this issue, and the teacher salary has increased since 2016 for preschool teachers and teachers in educare centers at an average of 2600 SEK per month (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020a). Although the right or the opportunity to increase teachers' salaries is available for school authorities, financial control and contributions from the state are needed. They have legal rights but not always financial ones.

School authorities also ask for flexible solutions and “fast tracks” for persons who already have a background in the profession. There are already a couple of alternatives for the further training of teachers (VAL), further training of foreign teachers (ULV), and additional teacher training (KPU), as well as work-integrated teacher education (AIL), which the government continues to build and invest in. Even places of admission for teacher training education have increased (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020b). A critical question to ask is how effective these fast tracks have been and how they can be improved.

The really radical proposal to attract recruitment potential presented by the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund, 2020) has not been proposed by the school authorities or the government. There are also few descriptions of the teaching staff’s age structure or the possibility of being able to keep teachers who are “65-plus.” It is common knowledge that the teaching profession has a high average age, but there are no concrete suggestions on how to keep them in the profession for a few more years. They are undeniably needed.

Higher status is in demand by the actors within the school, as well as the school authorities. The media debate seems to largely highlight negative aspects of the teaching profession (c.f. Edling and Liljestrand, 2019; Hultén, 2019). Even in comparison with the OECD, the value of the teaching profession in society is also lower for Swedish teachers and principals (Skolverket, 2014), and a vanishingly small portion of high school teachers believes that the teaching profession has high status (TALIS, 2018). This is also expressed in many of the answers. A fundamental question is what higher status means. Other fundamental questions include who will be the code bearers for this change, and how can this new mental attitude be shaped? Judging by the answers, the informants in this question may show a transformed attitude, but also a more one reactive approach.

The Swedish ministers for school and education also point out that they should contribute to “a more attractive teaching profession” by, for example, working toward career steps in the profession, higher salaries, relief from administrative tasks, and better skills development (Ekström and Ernekrans, 2020a). Although the concept of more attractive is quite general, responsible ministers have nevertheless pointed to a number of factors that can lead to higher attractiveness for the profession. In this question, it can be stated that the formulation arena (politicians) meets the realization arena (school authorities), which can lead to positive results. School authorities have every opportunity to act upon the new political reforms that have been signaled. However, some of these are in question—for example, career steps and individual salaries (Riksrevisionen, 2017).

Many of the respondents’ answers included a better working environment for teachers with many concrete proposals. International studies have shown that good working conditions significantly improve teachers’ ability to work, the probability that they will remain in the profession and also students' learning (Berry et al., 2019; Borman and Dowling, 2017; Johnsson et al., 2005, 2011). Some proposals have not been identified by the responsible ministers in the improvement proposals, which is why a dialog between these two actors would be desirable. However, it appears from the government's national and international initiatives that valuing and supporting the teaching profession and supporting the well-being of teachers (OECD, 2021) are high on their agenda. However, the question is what financial frameworks the school authorities will have.

6.2 Conclusions

The conclusions of this study show that the school authorities de facto perceive the shortage of teachers as very serious, and they have many different and varied answers on how the problem can be solved. Some of the proposals are in line with the government’s intentions, and others extend more on a concrete level. Some of the proposals are also in line with the views of other actors, whereas really radical proposals are lacking. Because they are highly responsible for school activities, they should be more actively involved in creating both working conditions and resources that make teachers want to stay in the profession. This study does not directly indicate proactive work on the issue. From policy enactment theory, one could say that the proposals and solutions that emerge are fairly ad hoc (cf. Ball et al., 2012) and that they have re-contextualized a status queue in the issue of teacher shortages. For school authorities, there are ideas and inspiration for how they could highlight the issue addressed by an American research institute (American Institute for Research, 2016). A summary of their recommendations is as follows: “Kickstart collaborative, constructive, data-informed policy dialogs to obtain, consensus on the problem and the possible solutions…Support rigorous and usable teacher supply-and-demand studies” (pp. 14–15).

In this study, two problematic aspects emerged: Partly how the status of teachers should be raised, and partly how a comprehensive solution to the teacher shortage should be developed. Concerning higher status for the teaching profession, the question is to define what it really means. How can this be achieved? Who should take the lead in contributing to this? Concerning solving the teacher shortage, several school actors and researchers have requested a uniform and comprehensive solution, which is the only reasonable option in this vulnerable situation. One conclusion that the reforming politicians have reached to deal with the issue is that the overall picture is more like a patchwork quilt. It is patched and repaired a bit everywhere without a holistic perspective. The most concrete example is focusing on the recruitment potential mentioned by the National Union of Teachers (Lärarnas Riksförbund, 2020), namely, a broad solution that aims to reach the so-called teacher reserve and implement a supplementary teacher program (KLP). Another proposal would be to convene a national council on the issue where, of course, school authorities would have an important role. Their voices are needed in the debate and in the solutions, and this study has shown this. However, the problem remains that in the answers, nothing has emerged about a holistic approach where the school authorities use their position being proactive to make the teaching profession attractive with, for example, concrete measures that improve the working environment and diversified teaching services.

Last but not least, the results of this study show a lack of an important perspective in current discussions, both from the media and various school actors, namely, the consequences of all the various political reforms (cf. Håkansson Lindqvist et al., 2021). Most of the responses from school authorities referred to reasons for the shortcomings in the near future, which also appear in media discussions. The real causes can probably be traced further back in time. However, the important question to ask is whether we have learned from history, and how we can avoid mistakes in the future. The criticism from various actors remains (Ahnborg, 2017; Skolinspektionen, 2014). This also indicates that school authorities make little use of the “free space” available to take an interpretive precedence in the issue and in a constructive way transform prevailing conditions about teacher shortages (cf Ball et al., 2012). In other words, school authorities could be more active in interpreting and re-contextualizing this issue.