När förstelärarreformen sjösattes 2013 förändrades scenen för de svenska lärarna. Flera decenniers jämlikhetssträvanden bröts genom att en ny titel, förstelärare, introducerades som en möjlig karriärväg för ”särskilt yrkesskickliga lärare”. Reformen lämnar till de lokala huvudmännen att avgöra hur förstelärarna ska utses och även vilka uppgifter som dessa ska utföra. Reformen är den senaste i en rad reformer som introducerats i det svenska skolsystemet under de senaste decennierna; reformer som kontinuerligt har förändrat lärarnas arbetsförhållanden.Målet för denna studie är att undersöka och problematisera reformens inverkan genom att låta en grupp förstelärare i en liten kommun ge sin syn på sin nya position. Hur artikulerar förstelärarna sina krav på jurisdiktion? Hur definierar de en ”särskilt yrkesskicklig lärare”? Analysen görs på de spontana berättelser som uppstod efter att gruppen skissat kring frågan ”Var befinner du dig i skolans organisation?”De teoretiska ramverk som används är diskursanalys i enlighet med Ernesto Laclau och Chantal Mouffe (1985), men jag använder mig även av Andrew Abbotts (1988) arbete för att beskriva hur gränser skapas och uppehålls på arbetsplatser. Abbott möjliggör en definition av de arenor där förhandlingarna äger rum, och Laclau och Mouffes verktygslåda tillhandahåller medel för att dissekera diskursens element.Resultatet visar att förstelärarnas definition av ”en särskilt yrkesskicklig lärare” mer riktas mot vad läraren gör än mot lärarens personliga egenskaper. Diskursen består av fyra element. Nyckelelementet består av positionen som gör det möjligt för försteläraren att operera på flera nivåer i organisationen. Tillsammans med personliga kvaliteter skapas en grund för funktionen – att leda skolutveckling. Det synliga arbetet legitimerar förstelärarnas krav på jurisdiktion, vilket i sin tur ger tillgång till positionen. Förstelärarnas gränsarbete är i första hand riktat uppåt i organisationen. De ger uttryck för ett behov av stöd från sina rektorer och gränser för det arbete de ombeds att utföra, samtidigt som de gör anspråk på tillgång till skolutvecklingsuppgifter.Studien pekar på de spänningar som byggts in i det svenska skolsystemet efter decennier av politiskt motiverade reformer, och den belyser behovet av möjliga karriärvägar för fler lärare. / In 2013 the stage changed for the Swedish teachers when the “first teacher” reform was launched by the Swedish government. After decades of egalitarianism, these traditions were broken when a new title, first teacher, was introduced as a possible career pathway for “highly skilled teachers”. The reform gives the local authorities freedom to determine how the first teachers should be appointed, and also to design the tasks that should be performed. The reform is the latest one in a number of reforms that have been introduced in the Swedish school system during the last decades; reforms that continuously have changed working conditions for the teachers. The aim of the study is to explore and problematise the impact of the reform by letting a group of first teachers in a small municipality give their view of their new position. How do the first teachers articulate their jurisdictional claims? How do they define a “highly skilled teacher”? The analysis is performed on spontaneous stories that emerged after sketching as a response to an open question: “Where are you in the school organization?” The theoretical frameworks used are discourse analysis according to the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (1985), but I also draw upon the work of Andrew Abbott (1988) to describe how boundaries are created and upheld at work places. The two frameworks are chosen to highlight different aspects of the first teachers’ boundary work. Abbott enables the description of the arenas where the negotiation takes place, and the toolbox of Laclau and Mouffe provides the means to dissect the elements of the discourse.The results show that the first teachers’ definition of a “highly skilled teacher” is more concerned with what the teacher does than with the teacher’s qualities. The discourse consists of four elements. The key element is the position which enables the first teacher to operate at multiple layers of the organization. Together with the personal qualities there is a foundation for the function – to lead school development. The visible work legitimatizes the first teachers’ claim to jurisdiction, which gives admission to the position. The first teachers’ boundary work is primarily directed ‘upwards’. They express a need for support from their principals and limits for the work they are asked to perform, but at the same time they claim access to school developing tasks.The study points at the tension that has been built into the Swedish school system after decades of politically motivated reforms, and it highlights the need for possibilities to career development for all teachers.

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Generations of women’s health workers, writers, activists, and academics have tended to present midwifery as the opposite of obstetrics; to summon the appealing association of midwifery by advocating ‘tradition and nature’ over ‘modernity and medicalization;’ and to invoke the melodrama of the subordination of female patients by and to male doctors. This thesis suggests that it is much more productive (and historically accurate) to think of the shifting roles and identities of childbirth practitioners and their clients in terms of “boundary work” rather than the oft-touted dichotomy of domination/resistance. The thesis navigates Enlightenment theories of body and nature and moves to explore the example of the Foucaultian “clinic” to illustrate a relatively unstable foundation on which the biomedical clinic appears not as an entity trapped in time and space, but always already subject to change and negotiation. A discussion of maternal health policy and the roles of birthing women in actively shaping the care they receive brings home the central argument that what is crucial to the ever-developing birthing models is not resisting that which appears to dominate, but affirming a practice that more adequately meets the needs of birthing women in BC today.

Generations of women’s health workers, writers, activists, and academics have tended to present midwifery as the opposite of obstetrics; to summon the appealing association of midwifery by advocating ‘tradition and nature’ over ‘modernity and medicalization;’ and to invoke the melodrama of the subordination of female patients by and to male doctors. This thesis suggests that it is much more productive (and historically accurate) to think of the shifting roles and identities of childbirth practitioners and their clients in terms of “boundary work” rather than the oft-touted dichotomy of domination/resistance. The thesis navigates Enlightenment theories of body and nature and moves to explore the example of the Foucaultian “clinic” to illustrate a relatively unstable foundation on which the biomedical clinic appears not as an entity trapped in time and space, but always already subject to change and negotiation. A discussion of maternal health policy and the roles of birthing women in actively shaping the care they receive brings home the central argument that what is crucial to the ever-developing birthing models is not resisting that which appears to dominate, but affirming a practice that more adequately meets the needs of birthing women in BC today.