Craft education has been regarded as an important instrument in the efforts to achieve equality which, ever since the end of World War II, have permeated the reforms of Swedish education. In spite of all efforts to the contrary, class- and sex-typed educational programmes are still reconstructed within the reformed education. This study examines the role of craft teacher training in the social and cultural reproduction. Socialization into a profession is a continuous process throughout a person's life. The time spent in craft teacher training is regarded as a meeting between future craft teachers in the light of their life stories and the school subject craft as it is transmitted by teacher trainers. Thus, the data collection includes information on both the future teachers and on the school subject craft. Two groups, one of females and one of males (including one woman), were followed through their teacher training with the help of questionnaires, essays and evaluation documents written by the future teachers. The school subject craft was studied through classroom observations and through taped interviews with teacher trainers. Although these trainee teachers, as fully qualified craft teachers, will have to co­operate within the same subject, and although they will have the same qualifications and equal pay, these educations have different admission rules. Textile craft teachers also have a longer education than wood&metalwork teachers. Besides belonging to different sexes, these two groups turned out to be very different in other respects as well. The future female craft teachers in this study have a middle-class background with well- educated mothers and they also have positive experiences of school. In their future occupation they wish to develop the art of textile craft. The future male craft teachers in this study have a working-class background where studies were something out of the ordinary and they also have negative experiences of school. In their future occupation they want to work together with children within a practical subject. The gender and class patterns developed during the trainee teachers' childhood and adolescence are reinforced by these teacher trainings. Moreover, the trainee teachers seem to reconstruct these patterns in their teaching styles in their future occupations. Both groups want to transmit "preparedness for everyday life" and "creative ability" to the pupils. However, deeper analyses reveal that this agreement is only illusory. The females expect the pupils to be moulded into docile, economical and quality-conscious persons. The males expect the pupils to be moulded into active, ingenious and dexterous persons. Both groups agree that it is easier for girls to become docile, careful and aware of the teacher's demands and that it is easier for boys to become active and ingenious in compulsory school. The gender symbolism -the passive woman and the active man - is reconstructed. Besides uncovering the complex reconstruction of the gender system at the sym­bolic, structural and individual level, this study also illuminates the reconstruction of the asymmetric relations between theoretical and practical activities within craft teacher training. The study ends with a discussion of how teacher training can contribute to the work for equality by educating the trainee teachers to act as spearheads for an equal society. / digitalisering@umu