After 18 years at the helm of the Danish Teachers’ Association, Anders Bondo Christensen resigns as chairman.
At an annual congress on Wednesday, 54-year-old Gordon Ørskov Madsen, who is former chairman of the association’s Aarhus department, has been elected as the new teacher chairman, and he acknowledges that he has big shoes to fill.
Question: You say you are a different person and have a different personality than Anders Bondo. How will teachers feel about it?
– I will strive a lot to create collection, create community. But I also want to listen a lot to criticism and to the fact that there are some of our members who cannot really see themselves in the new working time agreement and who are questioning the trade union community.
– It is clear that I can not go around and visit all schools throughout the country, but I will strive hard to establish listening meetings where I invite critical members in. Then I can hear where the shoe is hitting and how we can create positive change for those who think it all looks black.
Question: You have said that you have ideas for how the school can be improved. What are the ideas?
– I think we should give schools more freedom. Teachers, school leaders and schools must have greater freedom to run schools for exactly the students they have. This means that the schools must have the opportunity to make pilot schemes or deviate from the primary and lower secondary school law we have.
– And then I think that school development must be based on a triad. It must be between school researchers, teachers and politicians. Because politicians’ decisions must be based on research in the school and the teachers’ and leaders’ assessment of what it takes for teaching to succeed.
– That’s not how I think it is today. There are plenty of examples of decisions being made at the top level at Christiansborg or in the individual municipality without involving the school level and asking: “What do you think is needed?”. We must have established that link.
Question: What are your prerequisites for getting these ideas through?
– I want to point out that there is momentum right now. There is a will all the way around in the National Association of Local Authorities, in the ministry and in the Association of School Leaders that we must create a good school and development. I think we have a really good opportunity right now to drive the school forward in the triangle between politicians, practitioners and researchers.
Question: You say you are a different person and have a different personality than Anders Bondo. How will teachers feel about it?
– I will strive a lot to create collection, create community. But I also want to listen a lot to criticism and to the fact that there are some of our members who cannot really see themselves in the new working time agreement and who are questioning the trade union community.
– It is clear that I can not go around and visit all schools throughout the country, but I will strive hard to establish listening meetings where I invite critical members in. Then I can hear where the shoe is hitting and how we can create positive change for those who think it all looks black.
Question: You have said that you have ideas for how the school can be improved. What are the ideas?
– I think we should give schools more freedom. Teachers, school leaders and schools must have greater freedom to run schools for exactly the students they have. This means that the schools must have the opportunity to make pilot schemes or deviate from the primary and lower secondary school law we have.
– And then I think that school development must be based on a triad. It must be between school researchers, teachers and politicians. Because politicians’ decisions must be based on research in the school and the teachers’ and leaders’ assessment of what it takes for teaching to succeed.
– That’s not how I think it is today. There are plenty of examples of decisions being made at the top level at Christiansborg or in the individual municipality without involving the school level and asking: “What do you think is needed?”. We must have established that link.
Question: What are your prerequisites for getting these ideas through?
– I want to point out that there is momentum right now. There is a will all the way around in the National Association of Local Authorities, in the ministry and in the Association of School Leaders that we must create a good school and development. I think we have a really good opportunity right now to drive the school forward in the triangle between politicians, practitioners and researchers.
Source: The Nordic Page