You make things out of thin air : A study about what teachers see as signs of child poverty, and how they act to what they see

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine and understand how teachers see and handle the signs of child poverty within a classroom context. The paper is based on an interview study involving 8 teachers in 2 Swedish schools for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years old. Poverty is a complex word and there are many definitions of it. What do teachers interpret as signs of child poverty in the school context? How do they act when they think it’s necessary to protect a child from being affected by it, and how can we understand their choice of action with the help of action theory? We discovered that the teachers notice different things as signs of child poverty, and they all react in both different and similar ways. But one thing do they have in common: They discuss neither the signs nor their actions with each other. They act mainly on basis of individual choices and opinions, even though they are a part of a larger context in the school organization