The thesis deals with the development of the career of educators in after-school clubs. One part of the thesis is a theoretical part and the other part is my own research. Chapter one defines the concepts of the professional career and the life path. The second chapter deals with the educator in the after-school club, their job description and the qualifications related to the profession, competencies, typology of educators and the risks of the burnout syndrome for the profession. The third chapter analogously deals with the profession of a teacher. In the fourth chapter, I compare the career path of the educator with the professional career of the teacher, and the overall summary. The fifth chapter presents the findings of a qualitative research (five biographical interviews).

Detta är en kvalitativ studie som genom diskursanalys ämnar ta reda på hur samarbetet mellan förskolpedagoger och specialpedagoger ser ut på förskolor. Studien utfördes i en storstadsregion i Sverige. Alla barn ska få rätt till stöd i alla skolformer. Vi ämnar utröna hur förskolpedagoger ser på samarbetet och ifall det finns externa faktorer som påverkar. Externa faktorer som till exempel kan påverka skulle kunna vara maktstrukturer, professionella roller, erfarenhet och synen på vad som är bäst för barnet. Vi genomförde fem gruppintervjuer med 2 till 4 deltagare i vardera. Totalt intervjuades 15 personer, alla informanter var förskolpedagoger. Syftet med att intervjua pedagoger i förskolan är att det är en professionell yrkesroll med stor makt att påverka hur förskolan fungerar och att det är pedagogernas ansvar att planera och samarbeta med specialpedagoger. Denna studie kommer bidra till en större förståelse för vad förskolpedagoger har för förväntningar på samarbetet med specialpedagoger. Vi hade en uppfattning om att specialpedagogerna hade befogenhet att föreslå åtgärder oavsett vilka åsikter förskolpedagogerna hade i frågan. Detta var inte i linje med den information vi fick fram, där specialpedagogerna inte upplevdes befinna sig i maktposition gentemot förskolpedagoger. Däremot sågs det som önskvärt att ha specialpedagoger närvarande i samtal med vårdnadshavare som ett stöd åt alla inblandade parter. En specialpedagog bör således kunna ta hand om helheten, stödja lärare och barn, ge vikt och värdighet till svåra samtal med vårdnadshavare, men inte vara med och besluta om faktiska åtgärder. Denna komplexitet bidrar till att en möjlig hierarki av makt i pedagogiska termer faktiskt inte påverkar samarbetet mellan dessa yrkesgrupper negativt, utan tillför en positiv verksamhetsutveckling. / With the help of qualitative interviews, we want to find out what preschool teachers have for wishes and expectations of a collaboration with special educators. Are there any obstacles to good cooperation and what external factors can influence the collaboration? External factors that could affect, for example, may be power structures, professional roles, experience, and the view of what is best for the child. This will be of great importance to our future professional role if we have a better understanding of what is desirable in our professional role. We conducted five group interviews, with 2 to 4 participants. A total of 15 people was interviewed. All informants were preschool teachers in Sweden. The purpose of interviewing preschool teachers is that it is a professional role with great power to influence how preschool works and that it is the responsibility of preschool teachers to plan and collaborate with special educators. We were of the opinion that the special educators had the power to propose how the teachers would work regardless of what the teachers had in mind. This was not in line with the information we obtained, but it was desirable that the special educator could be present in discussions with the guardians as support for all parties involved. A special educator should thus be able to take care of the whole, support teachers and children, give weight and dignity to difficult conversations with custodians, but not be involved in deciding on actual measures. This complexity contributes to the fact that a possible hierarchy of power in pedagogical terms does not in fact affect the cooperation between these occupational groups negatively, but adds positive development.

In this study the emotional responses of the teacher’s experiences in integrating ICT in the curriculum were identified. Teachers’ experiences were explored regarding challenges and benefits of incorporating ICT in their teaching. The aim of this research was to attempt to contribute to the field by investigating the affective aspects according to Krathwohl’s taxonomy. The study employed a qualitative approach where data was analysed through narrative stories, interviews and observations. The design was used to capture the life stories of the five teachers who were integrating ICT relating to their experiences and emotional responses. Data was analysed by conceptual analysis after which, ten emotional response themes were identified. The ten emotional responses were then concatenated into four categories namely: hope, joy, anger and fear. This study found that teachers do experience complex emotions in response to the integration of ICT although there is a positive effect on instruction when information and communication’s technology is used optimally. / Dissertation (MEd (CIE))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / MEd / unrestricted