<p>Abstract</p><p>Since 1990, special needs educators have been working in both primary and junior school. It has not been easy for the special needs educators to take authority when working with broader educational issues due to the varying requirements placed upon them. The object of this study is to examine how certain primary and junior school teachers describe their expectations of special needs educators and their professional role.</p><p>I have conducted individual interviews with three primary school teachers and three junior school teachers, who have at least five years experience of working within their respective fields. The interviews have been scrutinized, and the results are presented with the help of five different themes. The results were then analysed in accordance with the two perspectives of special needs education described by Persson (2001) those of both the relational and the categorical perspective.</p><p>Amongst other things the results show that the view of primary and junior school teachers with regards to special needs educators differ one from another. Primary school teachers have more expectations that the special educator will provide them with support for the whole working team, and how they can proceed to work with their pupils. Junior school teachers in contrast place more emphasis on the special educator working directly with the pupils, and not simply as a source of advice on working methods.</p><p>From the analysis we can conclude that primary school teachers have a viewpoint which lies much nearer to that of the relational perspective, whilst the junior school teachers’ are more recognizable as having a categorical viewpoint.</p><p>Keywords: Special needs educator, special education, one school for all, professional role, profession.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Sedan 1990 utbildas det specialpedagoger som arbetar i såväl förskola som grundskola. Det har inte alltid varit enkelt för specialpedagoger att få mandat att arbeta med sina uppdrag och förväntningarna på dem varierar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur några förskollärare och grundskollärare skolår 1-5, beskriver sina förväntningar på specialpedagogens yrkesfunktion.</p><p>Jag har genomfört individuella intervjuer med tre förskollärare och tre grundskollärare samtliga med minst fem års erfarenhet inom yrket. Intervjuerna har bearbetats och resultatet presenteras i fem teman. Resultatet analyserades sedan i relation till de två perspektiv på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som bland annat beskrivits av Persson (2001), det relationella perspektivet och det kategoriska perspektivet.</p><p>Resultatet visar bland annat att förskollärares och grundskollärares syn på specialpedagogens yrkesfunktion skiljer sig åt i denna studie. Förskollärarna ger i högre utsträckning uttryck för en syn på specialpedagogen som en resursperson för arbetslaget som de kan använda som stöd i sitt arbete kring barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Grundskollärarna däremot ger i högre utsträckning uttryck för en syn på specialpedagogen som en resursperson som utför det direkta arbetet med eleverna.</p><p>Av analysen framgår att förskollärarna i högre grad ger uttryck för ett synsätt på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som ligger nära det relationella perspektivet, medan grundskollärarna i högre grad ger uttryck för ett synsätt på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som motsvarar ett kategoriskt perspektiv.</p><p>Nyckelord: Specialpedagog, specialpedagogik, en skola för alla, yrkesfunktion, profession.</p>

The purpose of this study is to describe how the principal and the special pedagogue perceive and define pupil ill-health prevention and pupil health enhancement in their work. It explores how they understand the role they play in elevhälsan, literally meaning pupils' health. And how meetings are run and decisions are made within the pupils' health teams at selected schools. Questions that will be answered are: How do the principal and the special pedagogue perceive pupil ill-health prevention and health enhancement work of the pupil health team at the school? How do the principal and the special pedagogue perceive their roles in the health of the pupils? How are decisions made and followed through at the pupil healthcare meetings? This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews and phenomenological inspired methodology. Pupil health teams from three different schools were interviewed, and in total three principals and five special pedagogues took part in this study. The analysis of the results of this study show that further consensus between the different health promoting coordinators is needed in the implementation of the pupil ill-health prevention and health enhancement work. Further findings show inconsistencies in how the different pupil health teams conduct their meetings and in how decisions are implemented. A majority of the pupil health teams used the meetings to address existing problems, rather than ill-health prevention and health promotion efforts. The principals demonstrated that they have a greater consensus in how they define their role in promoting pupil health, as opposed to the special pedagogues who expressed a more varied picture of their role. This study also demonstrates that the pupil health team that was most effective in pupil health developments was the team that had further education in pupil health. Findings also show that the different health coordinators have an important role in furthering development and accessibility of the learning environment for the pupils, and in contributing to creating a 'school for everyone'. The demands on the special pedagogues to meet all pupils' differences, and to see these differences as an asset, are great. The requirement of a 'school for everyone' is a lot to ask for. To create a school that has learning environments tailored to everyone's individual needs requires an understanding and consensus between the different pupil health coordinators. This can sometimes be a dilemma, yet the pupil health coordinators have an important role to fill in these realms. This study also found that it was of utmost importance to have a clearly defined organisation and definition of the what the ill-health prevention and health enhancement work involved. To promote this the pupil health coordinators must create a meeting culture that supports the pupil ill-health prevention and health promotional work.

Abstract Since 1990, special needs educators have been working in both primary and junior school. It has not been easy for the special needs educators to take authority when working with broader educational issues due to the varying requirements placed upon them. The object of this study is to examine how certain primary and junior school teachers describe their expectations of special needs educators and their professional role. I have conducted individual interviews with three primary school teachers and three junior school teachers, who have at least five years experience of working within their respective fields. The interviews have been scrutinized, and the results are presented with the help of five different themes. The results were then analysed in accordance with the two perspectives of special needs education described by Persson (2001) those of both the relational and the categorical perspective. Amongst other things the results show that the view of primary and junior school teachers with regards to special needs educators differ one from another. Primary school teachers have more expectations that the special educator will provide them with support for the whole working team, and how they can proceed to work with their pupils. Junior school teachers in contrast place more emphasis on the special educator working directly with the pupils, and not simply as a source of advice on working methods. From the analysis we can conclude that primary school teachers have a viewpoint which lies much nearer to that of the relational perspective, whilst the junior school teachers’ are more recognizable as having a categorical viewpoint. Keywords: Special needs educator, special education, one school for all, professional role, profession. / Sammanfattning Sedan 1990 utbildas det specialpedagoger som arbetar i såväl förskola som grundskola. Det har inte alltid varit enkelt för specialpedagoger att få mandat att arbeta med sina uppdrag och förväntningarna på dem varierar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur några förskollärare och grundskollärare skolår 1-5, beskriver sina förväntningar på specialpedagogens yrkesfunktion. Jag har genomfört individuella intervjuer med tre förskollärare och tre grundskollärare samtliga med minst fem års erfarenhet inom yrket. Intervjuerna har bearbetats och resultatet presenteras i fem teman. Resultatet analyserades sedan i relation till de två perspektiv på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som bland annat beskrivits av Persson (2001), det relationella perspektivet och det kategoriska perspektivet. Resultatet visar bland annat att förskollärares och grundskollärares syn på specialpedagogens yrkesfunktion skiljer sig åt i denna studie. Förskollärarna ger i högre utsträckning uttryck för en syn på specialpedagogen som en resursperson för arbetslaget som de kan använda som stöd i sitt arbete kring barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Grundskollärarna däremot ger i högre utsträckning uttryck för en syn på specialpedagogen som en resursperson som utför det direkta arbetet med eleverna. Av analysen framgår att förskollärarna i högre grad ger uttryck för ett synsätt på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som ligger nära det relationella perspektivet, medan grundskollärarna i högre grad ger uttryck för ett synsätt på specialpedagogisk verksamhet som motsvarar ett kategoriskt perspektiv. Nyckelord: Specialpedagog, specialpedagogik, en skola för alla, yrkesfunktion, profession.