Förskollärares erfarenheter av särskilt stöd i förskolan
Much of the everyday work of teachers in pre-schools, schools and youth centers is based on experience. This study is a qualitative interview study intended to make visible the experiences of pre-school teachers in situations when children are considered to be in need of special support. I have looked at pre-school teachers? descriptions of the kinds of situations in which a child is estimated to be in need of special support, what teachers look for in a child to identify it as a child in need of special support in a specific situation, and how the teachers define special support. Both this study and previous research show that children?s estimated need of support depends on the situation and context the child is in. The pre-school teachers in this study identify common situations where children are estimated to be in need of special support, namely: in interaction with others, in structured situations, during changes of activities and during free play. The study found that the pre-school teachers saw all children as requiring more or less support during certain periods of time. They didn?t identify a particular, generalizable group of ?special needs? children that requires special support more frequently. The pre-school teachers in this study struggled to define special support, stating that the definition depends on the individual that is in need of support and the situation in which support is seen to be necessary. Two of three informants in this study said that if special support needs a definition, they consider it to be support from outside the pre-school, such as provision of competencies the pre-school teachers do not possess, or reorganization.