Sloyd (Teacher education)
The assessments by the Swedish National Agency for Education are unanimous: handiwork is one of the most popular subjects in our schools – among both students and teachers alike.
Teaching is one of the most important professions in today’s society. As a handiwork teacher, you will create the conditions for your students to develop their ideas, weigh alternative solutions, produce objects and evaluate results. You will spark their curiosity for exploring and experimenting with various materials and taking on challenges in a creative way.
As a student in HDK-Valand’s teacher training programme in the subject of handiwork, you get to work with both hard and soft materials. It is a modern and exciting programme in which subject-specific teaching methods are interwoven with both theoretical and craft components.
The curriculum for teacher training in the subject of handiwork has evolved over the years, and today the focus on craft technique is complemented with areas such as handiwork in society, handiwork and digital tools, and aesthetic and cultural expression. The subject of handiwork also encompasses knowledge of sustainable development and strategies for developing students’ environmental awareness. This is because we do not provide any teacher training, but only subject courses that can be included in a teacher's degree.
The Handiwork Education programme at HDK-Valand has a clear connection to research. Examples of the programme faculty’s research areas include:
- Communications and teaching in handiwork practice
- Bodily learning
- Newly arrived students meet multi-modal resources in handiwork classrooms
- Multi-modal resources for teaching
- Approaches to teaching handiwork
About one-third of Sweden’s more than 7,000 handiwork teacher positions are currently held by people who do not meet the teacher certification requirements. This shortfall, in combination with the coming retirement of many of today's teachers, means that the future prospects are bright for accredited handiwork teachers.
Our teacher education is only conducted in Swedish.