"Dom är så oroliga" : en studie om skolpersonalens tal om elever i relationssvårigheter

This licentiate’s dissertation is about how school staff talk about pupils having difficulties in relating to teachers and other pupils. It’s specific focus is on pupils which are described as “disturbing”, “troublesome”,”unruly”, “unconcentrated” or characterised by similar concepts. The main aim is to elucidate and discuss how school staff explain pupils’ difficulties, what measures they state that they undertake and what measures they consider necessary. The study is based on a social constructive approach. This means that the way we understand the world we live in is seen as shaped by social and cultural processes mediated through language. A consequence of this is that the way the staff talk about pupils in difficulties will influence how they relate to those children and how they work at solving the problems. The empirical material consists of interviews with six principals, six Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators and six class teachers from six different schools. 15 of the people interviewed work with 11–13 year olds and three of them with 7–9 year olds. The material from the interviews is categorised into themes and further analysed in order to present a systematic overview of the ways in which the staff talk about children in difficulties. The result shows that the problems are understood as complex and full of nuances. Explanations of the problems from medical/psychological perspectives have no distinguished status. It is more common that the problems are related to social conditions, family situation and school environment. The study also shows that different professional groups usually place the responsibility for solving the problems with other professional groups. The way the concerned principal looks upon the problem seems be important for the way the problem is dealt with. The way the staff studied talk about the school activities indicates that schools differ concerning issues like organisation, the role of the Special Needs Co-ordinator, co-operation between different professional groups etc. As a consequence pupils having difficulties in relating to other people will be subjected to different conditions depending on what school they attend. The school as an arena of identity creation and citizenship education will offer hence different opportunities to different children in difficulties