The purpose of this study has been to investigate how special education pedagogues interpret and perform the prevention and promotion assignments in the governing documents as well as how policy is created to deliver it in their own school contexts. I work from a salutogenic perspective focusing on health factors when discussing possibilities but also obstacles to working proactively. The obstacles have been made visible in order to use them as a starting point to discover new possibilities. I utilized semi-structured interviews with seven special education pedagogues from different age groups and cities. Data was collected, analyzed and categorized according to themes from a hermeneutic approach, a so-called hermeneutic spiral. Main themes that allow for a health prevention and health promotion outlook are: 1. shared leadership, 2. clear delegation of responsibilities with mandate, 3. having sufficient time 4. cooperating school culture, 5. positive approach towards work tasks at hand 6. a shared knowledge about governing documents and the schools’ visions. The involved special education pedagogues interpret the health prevention and promoting assignments as being imperative to be ahead as much as possible, in order to reduce the amount of reactive work. Results indicate that the needs are bigger than the available resources in school contexts, resulting in feelings of moral dilemmas and feelings of insufficiency among the informants. Resources need to be divided between the academic tasks and the health promoting task, enabling all students to get equal possibilities of academic success and minimizing feelings of inadequacy. In this case it is imperative to receive enough support in time. My study is put together as a puzzle, one piece gets added to another, contributing to the bigger picture, aiming to make it as clear as possible. The bigger picture indicates a complex situation where clear leadership along with collaboration towards a common vision is essential. Schools are differently developed in this aspect and frequent changes of principals and staff complicates the systemizing and sustainability of the school culture. The study ends with discussing the main themes from salutogenic theory and background research. The final discussion is directed towards the operational development of school practice and context. My study shows that all the informants want to prioritize health prevention and health promotion work. The assignment is complex and the analysis demonstrates the importance of the principal taking the lead in establishing direction and vision. Special education pedagogues face the difficult situation of needs being greater than resources which makes it impossible to give support to all students who need it. This reality stands in contradiction to The United Nations Child Convention (2011) which is enacted in law, as well as The Salamanca declaration (1996) which states that support to children must have the highest economic priority in order for the education system to enable all children regardless of individual differences to be equally included. The same thing is declared in the school law (2010:800). Student health priorities in the school culture, time for dialogue and reflection as well as less staff turnover are commonly mentioned as health factors to perform the prevention and promotion assignments. In spite of clear governing documents, results show that school practice is not equally accessible for all children which is a worry for the informants. Schools see a reduction in staffing and resources while the academic as well as social needs are rapidly increasing. The student care team members experience more situations involving anxiety, panic attacks and students worrying about not being able to achieve as they wish, along with learning issues. This context can be challenging and mandates need to be clear between staff and given by the principal to avoid conflicts between professional roles risking taking time from the core assignment with the students. Systematic proactivity from screening of health- and risk areas and factors need to be built into all school contexts with the purpose of building bridges from what is working, the health factors, to the areas in need of development according to the salutogenic perspective, where learning and health go hand in hand. Results as well as previous research show that it is important that all professionals within a school are united and can cooperate in supporting the students' learning and well-being. The principal´s view on special education and student support is crucial for equality and accessibility for all students. Improvement of the psychosocial environment shows positive effects on learning and well-being.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-195724 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Lena Catharina |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärande |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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