<p>Abstract</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em>Keywords:</em><strong> </strong>special educational needs, social constructionism, children in need of support,</p><p>problem behavior in schools</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p>Hans Larsson, Department of Education,</p><p>Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden, hans.larsson@oru.se</p>

Earlier studies shows that democracy within the preschool is an important and on-going work, but could implicate certain consequences. For example that goals regarding democracy and influence in the preschool, rarely is done in practice but instead remains just words on a paper. It could also mean that the pedagogues lack education and knowledge within the area, but also how they react to the influence of children.   Preschool is expected to be a place for all children, no matter what luggage the child is carrying. The luggage is filled with the life experience, the personality and in this case the needs that the child has. The needs could be anything from nearness to physical and psychological disorders that requires more pedagogical attention. We have in this study looked closer into how children in need of certain support are allowed to influence the everyday work in the preschool. We have observed two different preschools within the same school district, interviewed teachers and handed out questionnaires to parents and legal guardians. The object has been to study if children with disabilities and children without disabilities, gets the same opportunity to influence and to participate in the everyday work in the preschool. Our question formulation in this study is; How does children with special needs get the opportunity to influence the everyday work within the preschool?   By comparing these preschools we have been able to draw the conclusion that differences exist regarding how the children gets to influence the everyday work in the preschool. A lot of it has to do with what approach and viewpoint the pedagogue has regarding inclusion. The goals from the curriculum and other steering documents, often ends up only being guidelines and are not fulfilled. The children we have studied has disabilities which are both neurological and neuropsychiatrical. The result in this study does not represent the entire teacher community. It is only based on the preschools that we have decided to observe.

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.

The perceptions of inclusive education play a significant role in the successful implementation of inclusion practices. The purpose of this study was to identify and investigate preschool teachers’ perceptions of inclusive education in mainstream education in Greece, as well as the extent of their settings’ inclusiveness. Their beliefs, actions, personal and professional factors that influence these attitudes were in the center of this study. The data were collected from a sample composed of 33 preschool teachers working in mainstream preschool settings located in urban and rural areas of Greece. This investigation utilized a mixed-method approach collecting data from interviews and questionnaires. The results indicated the preschool teachers’ positive but skeptical perspective. The interviews indicated issues on the practical implementation of inclusive education, due to the lack of expertise and support and the questionnaires confirmed these findings, highlighting the tremendous effort from the teachers’ behalf to work under adverse conditions. These results pointed out a need for continuous training on special and inclusive education and for the collaboration of all structures related to education. Only so, will the positive perceptions among mainstream preschool teachers be able to reach the successful implementation of inclusion at the educational process.

Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur pedagoger inom förskolan beskriver inkludering av barn i behov av stöd. Hur pedagogen ser på sitt uppdrag att inkludera alla barn i förskolan? Hur kan pedagogen lyfta sig själv och samtidigt ge andra i sin omgivning kunskaper kring barns behov av stöd? På vilket vis kan den kompetenta pedagogen se barnet med behov av stöd? Som metod har jag valt att göra en kvalitativ studie genom intervjuer. Jag valde tre förskolor i tre olika bostadsområden. Resultatet visar att samtliga tre pedagoger anser att det är viktigt att alla barn inom förskolan blir inkluderande, oavsett om de har behov av stöd eller inte. Resultatet visar även att pedagogernas förutsättningar för att ta emot ett barn i behov av stöd ser olika ut. Deras uppfattning är att de själva får söka adekvat utbildning och / eller litteratur. De menar vidare att det viktiga i arbetet med barn i behov av stöd är att det finns ett anpassande förhållningssätt och att man alltid ser till barnets bästa.