A few special school students perception of their participation in school : A qualitative study based on focusgroupinterviews

Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka uppfattningar några elever inskrivna i grundsärskolans senare del har om sitt inflytande i skolan. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom två fokusgruppintervjuer där sammanlagt fyra elever deltog. Eleverna tillhör formellt en grundsärskoleklass men har alla även viss undervisning i åldersadekvata grundskoleklasser. Studien har en kvalitativ metodansats med inspiration av barndomssociologisk teori, med Lundys (Welty & Lundy, 2013) inflytandemodell som teoretiskt analysverktyg. Resultatet visar att den sociala miljön har betydelse för elevernas möjlighet till inflytande. Elevernas grundsärskoleklass uppfattas som trygg och inkluderande vilket fungerar som en grund för elevernas mod och vilja att använda sitt aktörskap. Elevernas grundskoleklasser uppfattas däremot som otrygga vilket hämmar deras inflytande. De områden som eleverna uppfattar att de har inflytande i är uteslutande kopplat till deras grundsärskoleklass. Eleverna uppfattar att de involveras det vill säga att vuxna söker elevernas åsikter, lyssnar och agerar när det gäller deras individuella veckodagbok, raster, utvecklingssamtal, klassråd samt schema. Vilket tyder på att de har reellt inflytande inom dessa områden. Vad gäller undervisning framgår av resultatet att det är ett område där elevernas inflytande skulle kunna beskrivas som begränsat. Det handlar dock inte om inte all undervisning. I en del ämnen uppfattar de att de har mer inflytande och i andra mindre. Det går därför inte att dra den enkla slutsatsen att eleverna saknar inflytande utan att det beror på ämnets natur och vilken relation de har till undervisande lärare. Ett annat viktigt resultat var att mer inflytande skulle potentiellt kunna öka elevernas engagemang. Eleverna gav under fokusgruppintervjuerna flera olika exempel på hur de skulle vilja att undervisningen såg ut i olika ämnen. Uppgifter där eleverna får använda mer av sin kreativitet uppfattas som roligare av eleverna. Det handlar därför om att själva formen för undervisningen begränsar deras engagemang.The purpose of the study was to investigate what perceptions some special school students enrolled in the latter part of primary school have about their political participation in school. The empirical material was collected through two focus group interviews where a total of four students participated. The students formally belong to a special school class, but they all also participate in some age-appropriate primary school classes. The study has a qualitative method approach inspired by childhood sociological theory, with the ”Voice” model (Welty & Lundy, 2013) as theoretical analysis tool. The result shows that the social environment is important for students' ability to express their views and participate in decision-making. The students special school class is perceived as safe and inclusive, which serves as a basis for the students' courage and willingness to use their agency. The pupils' primary school classes are perceived as insecure, which inhibits their courage to speak their mind and therefor also their involvement in decision-making. The areas that the students perceive to have influence over are exclusively linked to their special school class. The students perceive that they are involved (that is, adults seek students' views, listen and act upon them) regarding their individual weekly diary, breaks, development talks, class councils, and schedule. Which indicates that they have real political participation in these areas. As regards to teaching, the results indicates that that is an area where students' influence could be described as limited. However, this does not concern all teaching. In some subjects the students perceive that they have more involvement in decision-making and in others less. It is therefore not possible to make the simple conclusion that the students lack influence, rather it is depending on the nature of the subject and what relation they have with the teachers. Another important outcome was that more influence could potentially increase the students' involvement. During the focus group interviews, the students gave several different examples of how they would like the teaching to appear like in different subjects. Tasks where students may use more of their creativity where perceived as more fun by the students. Thus, the form of teaching limits their commitment