AbstractSince 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.

In my thesis I have chosen to examine pre-school from a gender perspective, focusing on the current norms of society that are also influencing pre-school. My thesis is written in the form of an essay, which means that reflections are a substantial part, and writing has become a part of my process of learning. My thesis originates in three different situations that I have experienced during the years I have been working in the pre-school. These situations show how I, as a pre-school educator, unconsciously am a part of creating norms, patterns and gender. The curriculum of the pre-school has been the basis of this thesis, and an important part has been to interpret what the mission of pre-school is in practice.I start by explaining the concepts of sex, gender and norms, and continue by describing how preschool can be viewed as an institution preserving the norms.

The aim of this work has been to investigate how it is that it sometimes can be difficult for special educators to gain access by teachers to the classroom/lesson to make observations. A partial order has been to determine whether the special educator can curb the negative response from the teacher in question, concerning access to the classroom/lesson. The survey has a phenomenological perspective as the basis of the test procedures and the analyses made. Phenomenology has as its starting point that the human does not perceive the world in the same way, and that she has different motives and intentions for her actions. In order to understand why the human act like she does, you have to create an image of the personal meaning behind this action. To create this image, I have implemented conversational interviews with five teachers at a high school, in central Sweden. The investigation revealed that it is missing that the school's teachers are clearly informed of which laws and regulations the special educator is subordinate to.

This essay is about my meeting as an educator at a preschool with a child who is deemed to be in need of special assistance. I have worked in preschools and schools for nearly fifteen years and have met a great many children with different needs during these years. I tell in this essay about my relationship with Lucas who is a child I feel need special support in his everyday life. Lucas has what we in the preschool world call impulse controlled behavior. I also feel that he is disturbed by external stimuli such as sound and he has difficulty with social interactions with friends.

My essay begins with a story in which I portray different communicative situations at the preschool unit Myran. The children in my story are at an early stage of development and they all suffer from multiple disabilities which inhibit their ways of communicating. Through my story, I describe how I perceive different communication dilemmas in my work place. A difficulty I cover in my essay is how the educator knows if he or she has interpreted a child correctly when it does not have a verbal communication and therefore is completely dependent on the educators? interpretations of its communication efforts.

This essay contains two stories that reflect the reality I face as an educator, as well as a reflective discussion about my self-perceived dilemma. The dilemma reflects a classroom situation where I as an educator have trouble dividing my focus, my focus is either put on entire the class or on the child with special needs. Through this self-perceived situation I have started to question how children with special needs find their place in the school today. I discuss how I can handle and look at the unique situation that occurs when meeting this child.Terms like integration, inclusion, segregation, social rights and the expression "a school for everyone" will be discussed in this text, as well as how we can connect these terms and expressions to the problems I find in the school system?s way of handling children with special needs.I also highlight my dilemma from different ethical perspective.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to find out how leisure educator´s reason about children?s learning and development, and their view of their own role in the process. Four leisure educators were interviewed to answer these questions. The study is based on qualitative interviews, wich means that the interviewer must interpret and understand what the respondents want to say. This is to get a deeper knowledge of the subject. The results show that the leisure educators believe they have a large and important role in children's development and learning.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to find out how leisure educator´s reason about children?s learning and development, and their view of their own role in the process. Four leisure educators were interviewed to answer these questions. The study is based on qualitative interviews, wich means that the interviewer must interpret and understand what the respondents want to say. This is to get a deeper knowledge of the subject. The results show that the leisure educators believe they have a large and important role in children's development and learning.

Objective: The aim of this work is to find out how a number of educators work when giving children support and opportunities for language development.Questions:What have preschool for policy to monitor/assess the children?s language development?What experiences do teachers have of children who need support in language development?How do educator?s regard support from specialised educator?s? Do these efforts support the children to enhance language development?Methods: Qualitative methodology, Interviews with six teachers and two specialised educators from three kindergartens in the municipality.Summary of conclusions: The municipality in which the survey was conducted has a document that provides guide lines on how to work with children?s language development in school and preschool. Pedagogical documentation is a tool that teachers use in nursery school which educators and parents can follow, which shows children?s learning processes and learn strategies. Research shows that through play, music, creative activities, photos, etc.

En viktig aspekt i specialpedagogens roll är att hennes uppdrag skall vara av en tydlig karaktär. Genom att rollen är tydlig kan energi och kompetens läggas på att utveckla verksamheterna på grupp och organisationsnivå. Handledning är ett kompetensutvecklande arbetssätt som specialpedagogerna använder sig av för att kunna utveckla en kunskapstillväxt i verksamheten för att kunna möta alla barn..

To be able to adopt, the future adoptive parents must participate in parental education and have a home investigation done. The home investigation is extensive and great demands are made on the parents. The purpose with this study was to get an insight and understanding in the parents? thoughts and feelings about the demands and expectations that are made on them during an international adoption. To answer this, we used these questions: Which demands and expectations are made on the future adoptive parents by the home investigator and the parental educator? How do the future adoptive parents experience the demands and expectations that are made on them before an adoption? Does the apprehension about the demands and expectations differ between the future adoptive parents and the home investigator contrary the parental educator? We used a qualitative method, interviewing four couples of parents, one home investigator and one parental educator.

In the essay, the balance between being an educator and a mother of a child with autism is explored in respect to how the roles might influence the actions of a pre-school teacher. Writing is used as a method of reflection, it gives the teacher a chance to take a step back and view her practical experiences from a novel perspective; conclusions are recounted throughout the teachers narrative. The essay is based on the following questions; which problems might arise in the meeting with parents such as Adams where there is a suspicion of autism for the child? Which advantages/disadvantages might the teacher?s personal experience of autism have for the role as educator? How would the dual roles as educator and mother of an autistic child best be balanced in the future?The essay highlights special educational and parent perspectives on the matter of autism. Professor of pedagogy Claes Nilholm, specializes in special needs education.

In the essay, the balance between being an educator and a mother of a child with autism is explored in respect to how the roles might influence the actions of a pre-school teacher. Writing is used as a method of reflection, it gives the teacher a chance to take a step back and view her practical experiences from a novel perspective; conclusions are recounted throughout the teachers narrative. The essay is based on the following questions; which problems might arise in the meeting with parents such as Adams where there is a suspicion of autism for the child? Which advantages/disadvantages might the teacher?s personal experience of autism have for the role as educator? How would the dual roles as educator and mother of an autistic child best be balanced in the future?The essay highlights special educational and parent perspectives on the matter of autism. Professor of pedagogy Claes Nilholm, specializes in special needs education.

Henriksson, Kristina (2009). Assessing student teachers through conversation - an interactional analysis of student-teaching conferencesThe aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of student-teaching conferences. During a school-based education for student teachers, teacher educators from the university visit the student teachers. They also have conversations, so-called student-teaching conferences, with the students school mentors to assess the student teachers knowledge. These conversations aim at assessing the student teachers professional knowledge at the end of a shool-based education.

The intention of this study was to create an understanding of how multi-professional interaction could convert into inter-professional collaboration, which takes advantage of and acknowledges the individual professional identity. The intention was to understand the meaning of collaboration through the study of meetings between professionals who use different symbol systems. In particular, we wanted to study inter-professional interaction from a symbolic interactional perspective with a focus on Self, Identity, Symbols, Meaning and Professional community. The employed method was semi-structured interviews with ten questions. A convenience sample was used to identify working groups composed of different professions, such as teachers, social workers and therapy assistants.