After the economic turn in school administration in the 1990s, the state was announcing that much of the work of the school was to be governed on the basis of the teacher groups’ own professionalism and with cooperation between local educational authorities and the teaching body. This was no longer the job of the state and the Parliament.
Thus teachers' autonomy with reference to central authority is said to be increased, but at the same time the dependence of their position relative to school managers and local educational politicians has grown. Today politicians often speak about ‘professional teachers’, but at least in some respects the teachers’ professional autonomy has decreased in the last few years. Nevertheless the possible remaining conflicts of interest between the two large teacher groups have to be handled at local level.