Teacher standards are used in many countries, but it has been argued that there is a disconnection between the standards and teachers' everyday practices. Mega-narratives about teachers' practices have been recognised as powerful for educational change and when implementing and legitimising standards. In this comparative study, the standards for newly qualified teachers in Australia, Scotland and Sweden are analysed in order to determine the extent to which they contain human elements, here framed as contextual professionalism, and/or paradigmatic knowledge (Olson and Craig in "Teach Coll Rec" 111(2):547-572, 2009a). This comparison facilitates an exploration of how teachers' work is envisaged in the respective countries and what is expected or required from newly qualified teachers. The results indicate that the Australian and Scottish standards emphasise paradigmatic knowledge in teaching, whereas the now abandoned Swedish standards emphasise contextual professionalism in teaching.