AbstractBakgrunden till föreliggande studie är att skolutveckling är ett område som ofta prioriteras bort för specialpedagoger framför andra specialpedagogiska arbetsuppgifter som undervisning enskilt eller i grupp, dokumentation eller andra administrativa arbetsuppgifter. Detta gjorde mig intresserad av att undersöka hur specialpedagogens kunskaper kommer till användning inom skolutveckling. Syftet med föreliggande studie är således att undersöka hur specialpedagogens kunskap och kompetens inom skolutveckling kommer till användning i skolans verksamhet. Studien syftar även till att belysa vad som är betydelsefullt för framgångsrik skolutveckling i skolans organisation. Studiens frågeställningar är:•Hur arbetar specialpedagoger med skolutveckling?•Vad möjliggör och begränsar specialpedagogers arbete med skolutveckling?•Vad är betydelsefullt i organisationen för att lyckas med skolutveckling?Föreliggande studie bygger den empiriska delen på underlag ifrån fyra grundskolor i tre kommuner. Respondenterna som inkluderades i studien är fyra rektorer som har gått rektorsprogrammet och fyra utbildade specialpedagoger. En rektor och en specialpedagog intervjuades från varje organisation. Rektor och specialpedagog skulle även ha arbetat tillsammans i mer än sex månader, för att ha haft möjlighet och kunnat påbörja utvecklandet av en organisation för skolutveckling. En kvalitativ metod har använts med semistrukturerade intervjuer för att på ett naturligt sätt kunna ställa följdfrågor till respondenterna. För att bearbeta och analysera det insamlade materialet användes en kvalitativ innehållsanalys, för att kunna analyser intervjuerna med fokus på likheter och skillnader. Resultatet visar att arbetet med skolutveckling är ett arbetsområde som är svårt för specialpedagogerna att nå framgång i och specialpedagogerna får inte mandat till att arbeta med skolutveckling. Resultatet påvisar även för att det ska bli en framgångsrik organisation och för att lyckas med skolutveckling är det betydelsefullt med en tydlig ledning som organiserar och strukturerar arbetet med skolutveckling. Studien ger en inblick i hur viktigt specialpedagogers eget engagemang och med egen kraft hävda sin yrkesroll för att få mandat och legitimitet att utföra de arbetsuppgifter som specialpedagogutbildningen motsvarar. Studien bidrar även med kunskap om vad som är betydelsefullt för att lyckas med skolutveckling, i framgångsrika organisationer är det viktigt hur den interna organisationen är organiserad och det är avgörande med en kompetent och engagerad rektor som organiserar och strukturerar det pedagogiska ledarskapet som främjar en lärande och en samarbetande kultur i riktning mot kunskapskraven. Studiens kunskapsbidrag är värdefullt för nyutexaminerade specialpedagoger, verksamma specialpedagoger, rektorer samt skolledare. / AbstractThe background to the present study is that school development is an area, which is often neglected for special educators in favor of other job assignments, such as teaching, individually or in groups, documentation, or other administrative work tasks. This made me interested in examining how the knowledge of special educators is taken into consideration within school development. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine how special educators’ knowledge and competence regarding school development is utilized within schools. In addition, the aim is to illuminate relevant aspects of successful school development within the school organization. The problem statements of the study are:•In what ways are special educators working with school development?•What facilitates as well as limits the school development work of special educators?•Which organizational aspects are important for a successful school development?The empirical data of the present study comes from four compulsory schools in three municipalities. Respondents in the study are four principals, who previously have participated in the school leadership program, and four qualified special educators. An inclusion criteria for the respondents was that one principal and one special educator had worked together for at least six months in order to have started a collaboration in developing an organization for school development. A qualitative design was chosen, using individual semi-structured interviews, which allow for follow-up questions. A qualitative content analysis was chosen, which focuses on differences and similarities in the data. Findings show that school development is an area which is difficult for special educators to succeed in, and that they are not given the mandate to work with school development. Findings also indicate that in order to be a successful organization that ensure school development, it is important to have a distinct management that organizes and structures the work regarding school development. This study highlights the importance of special educators’ being participating as well as claiming the value of their profession in order to obtain the mandate and the legitimacy to perform the work tasks that their education has prepared them for. In addition, the study contributes with knowledge regarding important factors in successful school development: in successful organizations it is important how the internal organization is organized. A decisive element is having a competent and committed principal who organizes and structures a pedagogical leadership, promoting a culture characterized by learning and cooperation in relation to the knowledge requirements. This study contributes with valuable knowledge to recently graduated special educators as well as already active special educators, principals, and school managers.

Syftet med vår uppsats är att söka svar på hur några skolledare och huvudmän arbetar med skolförbättring. Våra frågeställningar är; På vilka sätt ser huvudmän, skolledare och forskning på skolförbättring?På vilka sätt tar skolledare och huvudmän tillvara specialpedagogens kompetens gällande skolutveckling? Vår uppsats vilar på systemteori. I systemteori ligger fokus på helheten där det är delarna eller nivåerna i systemen som påverkar varandra ömsesidigt. Detta ömsesidiga beroendet är mycket viktiga aspekter där människor i ett socialt system tillsammans skapar helheten. I systemteorin finns en hierarkisk uppbyggnad där den högre nivån alltid är överordnad de lägre nivåerna. För att ett system ska fungera är det viktigt att det är tydligt och att gränserna mellan de olika nivåerna upprätthålls. Vi har valt att använda oss av kvalitativ metod då vi är ute efter att undersöka skolledares och huvudmäns uppfattningar om skolförbättring. Bryman (2015) menar att den kvalitativa intervjun passar när undersökningen riktas mot informantens uppfattning, vilket är syftet med vår uppsats. Som metodansats har vi valt att använda oss av hemneutik. Resultaten presenterar vi i teman som utgår från våra frågeställningar. Vi presenterar huvudmännen och rektorers resultat var för sig för att senare kunna jämföra dessa två kategorier. Det resultat vi funnit i vår uppsats är bekymmersamt utifrån vår yrkesroll. Om målet med skolförbättring är att förändra undervisningen anser vi att det hade varit gynnsamt om specialpedagogen i hög grad varit delaktig i det arbetet. I vår uppsats finner vi att huvudmän och rektorer strävar efter ett distribuerat ledarskap i skolförbättring och ofta är det förstelärare som blir delaktiga i detta ledarskap. / The purpose of our master thesis is to seek answers to how some school leaders and municipality work with school improvement. Our framing of question is: •In what way do principals, school leaders and research perceive at school improvement?•In what way do school leaders and municipality utilize the special educator’s competence regarding school improvement?Our thesis rests on systems theory. In systems theory, the focus is in the entirety where it is the parts or levels in the system that mutually affect each other. This mutual dependence is very important aspects where people in a social system together create the entirety. In system theory there is a hierarchical structure where the higher level always is superior to the lower levels. For a system to work, it is important that it´s clear and that the boundaries between the different levels are maintained. The parts also interact mutually. We have chosen to use qualitative data as we want to investigate school leaders and principal’s perceptions of school improvement. Bryman (2015) believes that the qualitative interview fits when the survey is aimed at the informant´s view, which is the purpose of our essay. As a method approach, we have chosen to use hermeneutics. We present the results in themes based om our issues. We present the school leaders and the municipality’s results separately for later comparison of these two categories. The result we found is our thesis is worrying based on our professional role. If the goal of school improvement is to change teaching, we think it would have been beneficial if the special educator had been more involved in that work because the special education has a formal competence to lead school improvement. In our thesis we find that municipality’s and school leaders strive for distributed leadership in school improvement and it is often the Swedish first teacher who participates in this leadership.

The purpose of this research is to investigate what factors influenced the rationalisation and redeployment of public secondary school in the Northern Province. The process carried with it a many implementation problems. Stakeholders interpreted the procedures differently Although there were collective agreements concluded in the ELRC there were problems in the implementation as the stakeholders had different objectives. Though the department of education indicated that they wanted to achieve equitable redistribution of resources, including educators, the reality is that they wanted to save money. The unions agreed to redeployment as a means to correct the imbalances of the past and to secure educators jobs. The main factors which influenced the process of redeployment are the need to redistribute educators equitably and the department’s desire to save money. / Dissertation (MEd (Education Management and Policy Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This essay begins with two stories that depict children with both a lack of care and care in exaggeration. My purpose with essay is to make socialization visible by discussing these scenarios and show how it is affected by both the lack of care and exaggeration of it. This is done by reflecting on and examining how the children in my stories are affected in the socialization process by their parents actions and decisions. But also taking in the educators' view of socialization and the importance of care for the child's well-being and opportunities for learning. As an educator, I Believe that we need to make visible and reflect on the cases that I have presented in my stories. This is to gain a better understanding of how we should respond to children whose social ability is reduced due to both lack of care but also excessive care. I will compare the care the children receive and how this goes together with socialization and also even why the subject is so difficult to talk about in preschool. Otherwise, I will reflect on my questions regarding the educators' knowledge, attitudes and responsibilities. The essay's structure is based on my stories. I will reflect and deepen the reflections by linking them to literature such as "social handling, sociala relationer" and to Mie Josephson's dissertation "Det ansvarsfulla mötet". / Denna essä inleds med två berättelser som speglar barn med brist på omsorg och omsorg i överdrift. Mitt syfte med essän är att synliggöra socialisering genom att diskutera detta och hur det påverkas utifrån både omsorgsbrist och överdrift. Detta görs genom att reflektera över och undersöka hur barnen i mina berättelser påverkas i socialiseringsprocessen av sina föräldrars agerande. Men även hur detta framträder mot bakgrund av pedagogernas syn på socialiseringen och omsorgens betydelse för barnets välmående och möjligheter till lärande. Som pedagog anser jag att vi behöver synliggöra och reflektera över de fall som jag har gestaltat i mina berättelser. Detta för att få en ökad förståelse för hur vi ska bemöta barn vars sociala förmåga reduceras på grund av både brist på omsorg men även överdriven omsorg. Jag kommer att jämföra den omsorg barnen får och hur detta går ihop med socialisering, även varför ämnet är så svårt att prata om i förskolan. Övrigt kommer jag reflektera över mina frågeställningar som handlar om pedagogernas kunskaper, förhållningssätt samt ansvar. Uppsatsens metod är essäskrivandet där jag utifrån mina berättelser reflekterar och fördjupar reflektionerna genom att koppla de till litteratur såsom “social handling, sociala relationer” samt till Mie Josefsons avhandling “Det ansvarsfulla mötet”.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment or partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at University of Zululand, South Africa, 2004. / The present investigation had two objectives. The first aim was to examine educators' attitudes towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners into mainstream education. The second aim was to determine the extent to which educators were influenced by factors such as gender, age, teaching experience, special education qualification and teaching phase qualification. A questionnaire was administrated to all race groups of educators teaching in mainstream primary schools, located in the Umlazi District. Fifty two and a half percent (52,5%) of the educators were found to have a positive attitude towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream classes. Forty seven and a half percent (47.5%) displayed a negative attitude towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream classes. Results also illustrated that the variables of gender, age and years of teaching experience have no influence on educators' attitude towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream education. However, the results did indicate that there is a relationship between educators' qualification in special education and their attitude towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream education. Fourteen percent (14%) had special education qualification and the majority of this group had positive attitudes towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream education. Finally with regard to the variable of teaching phase qualification, there appeared to be insufficient evidence to make a decision as to the relationship between teaching phase qualification and educators' attitude towards the inclusion of mildly mentally retarded learners in mainstream education.

Relative differences in attitudes between educators and employers concerning training of the mentally retarded within Cache County were studied by analyzing their responses to 40 questions dealing with Academic, Personal, Social, and Vocational Skills. Academic Skills were found to show no statistical significance in terms of attitude differences expressed by educators and employers as they relate to successful employability criterion. Personal Skills were found to show no statistical significance in terms of attitude differences expressed by educators and employers tested as they relate to successful employability criterion. Personal Skills were found to show no statistical significance in terms of attitude differences expressed by educators and employers tested as they relate to successful employability criterion. Social skills were found to show statistical significance at the .10 level in terms of attitude differences expressed by educators and employers as they relate to successful employability criterion. Within this area, a higher mean score was recorded by employers than educators (44.83 to 42.90). This refers to the fact that employers, more than educators, feel that Social Skills are more important. Vocational Skills were found to show the highest statistical significance of the categories tested in terms of attitude differences expressed by educators and employers as they relate to successful employability criterion. The statistical level on this category was at the .01 level. A higher mean score was found within the employer segment of this category, 46.03, than that for educators 42.50.

Each year, teen pregnancy occurs in 750,000 15-to-19 year-old women in the United States (U.S.). Utah has the youngest population and the lowest teen abortion rates in the U.S. Approximately 73% of teen pregnancies in Utah result in live births. The prevalence of teen pregnancy and the nutritional risk to mother and child result in a much greater need for social support, such as nutrition education. Current literature shows that the paraprofessional model is effective in increasing positive behavior change through nutrition education. Presently, there is a lack of evidence that paraprofessional teens are capable of accurately and effectively teaching their peers nutrition information. This pilot study aims to measure the effectiveness of the peer-teaching-peer paraprofessional model in teen parenting nutrition education, and to demonstrate that peer educators ages 18-22 are capable of teaching their peers accurate nutrition information as effectively as adult paraprofessionals. In this pilot study, two females were trained to become paraprofessional peer educators. To supplement the training of peer educators, this pilot study developed and recorded a nutrition presentation for all six lessons of the paper version Missouri Extension Teen Parenting curriculum. Each trained peer educator taught 10 to 13 clients (ages 14 to 19) over three weeks. For evaluation, the study used pre/post comparisons. Assessment tools include teaching evaluations, pre-post test on nutrition knowledge, 24-hour dietary and physical activity recalls, and behavioral checklist. There was a significant difference in pre-post tests in knowledge, behavior, and exit survey among participants, indicating that peer educators are able to teach their peers effectively. Although not significant, peer educators' teaching accuracy score was high and improved consistently. Eighty-three of participants like or very much liked to be taught by their peers. Findings from this study showed great potential in having adolescents teach their peers as effectively as older educators.

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