The remarkable ascent of the Norwegian teaching profession in the 19th century mirrors the progress and even revolutionizing of the Norwegian school system during this century. At the beginning of the century we find the typical Norwegian teacher as a rather peripheral and low status figure, the representative of the ambulating school established through the school law of 1739. These teachers had mostly only received some 73 elementary instruction by the local priests, and were often poorly treated in the communities. Being a teacher was considered a way of living for “weak subjects” that would not succeed on other venues. If we move forward to the end of the century we find the teachers profession in quite a different position: the teachers have now become the self-conscious forefront of the national movement, agents of new and self-conscious national culture, and carriers of the attitude and learning of this culture. The school institution is no longer an appendix to the religious and moral upbringing of the families, but the locus for the creation of modern citizens. The teachers associations and their history provide us with a great material for understanding these processes. From the beginning in the 1820 as fragmented, local initiatives, mostly concerned with teaching techniques, to the highly political groups of the second half of the century, the associations development mirror that of Norwegian school history itself. It is this development that will be presented with some examples in my contribution to the Symposium 2013.