This article deals with the question of how the restructuring of educational systems in Nordic countries affects teachers' working conditions. It is based on results from the project "Restructuring in Education: Reform policy and teacher professionalism in different Nordic contexts" in which the construction of the "New Teacher" in Nordic countries was described and analyzed. In the paper we will relate the results from an analysis of steering and policy documents to an analysis of teacher interviews concerning how they experienced the changes during the 1990s. According to several scholars in the field, the consequence of restructuring has been a growing instrumentalism. Teaching is said to be increasingly managerial in nature, both as teachers are managed and, in turn, themselves manage others. This is, however, more a traditionalist than an obvious argument. Our ambition has been to qualify the discussion by more sensitive and nuanced descriptions of how restructuring affects teachers' work. (Contains 1 figure and 10 notes.)