Yrkesgruppers anspråk på arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd: En studie av jurisdiktion, arbetsfördelning och professionellt arbete i förskolan.

The study investigates how the division of labour between kindergarten teachers and special needs teachers is described with regard to children who need special support. More specifically, it looks at which occupational group takes responsibility for, or ‘controls’, the work involving these children. The research questions are: 1) Which occupational group takes responsibility for formulating problems according to kindergarten teachers? 2) Which occupational group takes responsibility for discussing problems according to kindergarten teachers? 3) Which occupational group takes responsibility for dealing with problems according to kindergarten teachers?

The results show that it is unclear who has control over the treatment of children who need special support - kindergarten teachers or special needs teachers. Special needs teachers appear to have strong control and expert knowledge of the children's perceived deficiencies, which may lead to kindergarten teachers withdrawing from responsibility for these children. Another conclusion is that kindergarten teachers need to be strengthened in their professional roles. Increased knowledge about special education can make them more confident in their professional roles, so that they can better meet the needs of all children in kindergarten.

The data material consists of semi-structured interviews with fifteen kindergarten teachers from fifteen Swedish kindergartens. The kindergarten teachers had various types of educational expertise in addition to kindergarten teacher education, for example in mathematics, the use of digital tools, language, special needs education and/or multilingualism.

Gäreskog, P. (2021). "Yrkesgruppers anspråk på arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd: En studie av jurisdiktion, arbetsfördelning och professionellt arbete i förskolan". Educare, 2021(4):29-53.