Pedagogik - konsultens marknad
Pedagogical consultantProfessional developmentMarketingSchoolsMunicipalityNetworkNiched marketRelations
PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the market of pedagogic consulting and how the customers look upon these kinds of services and what the consultants think about the market. The following five questions were investigated:What is the situation of the market of pedagogic consulting?- What needs and what demands are there of pedagogical consulting services? - What are the economic possibilities for schools and municipalities to buy professional development and consulting services?What do schools and municipalities think about their needs and what do they think about buying professional development from consultants?- How are the professional development offerings of the consultants recieved by schools and municipalities and is there a difference between the private and public sector of education? - What impact could professional development have on schools?In what way is the marketing for pedagogic consulting done?Method In this study I have chosen to have a qualitative approach with an abductive perpective. I made these choices to get closer to what I wanted to investigate. Through the abductive methodology it was possible to go between theory and empirics. The empirics consits of seven face-face local interviews. The persons who were interviewed were consultants, principals and the head of the administration of upper secondary schools. They all helped me to investigate the pedagogical consultation market.Conclusions According to the sources in this paper have the Swedish school results decreased, therefore it is a need to do something about it and professional development for teachers could be one thing that could improve the situation. However, the pedagogical consulting businesses could face a problematic time, because of the economical crises which makes is difficult for schools and municipalities to afford their services. I interpret that schools seem to be unsure of what needs they have although they seem to understand that there is something they lack. It can be hard to see what the basic problem is and therefore difficult to know what changes are needed and what kind of professional development teachers need. Through the offering of professional development services by consultants, the teachers? quality can become better and the schools competitiveness can improve. Finally, I found out that the municipality and schools I investigated don?t buy pedagogical consulting services very often. The reason for this could be the economic situation due to the economic crises. I also found that the marketing in pedagogical consulting businesses mostly is done through personal networks.