Pysselgumma eller pedagogiskt ansvarig för barns sociala utveckling?
En kvalitativ studie om hur en grupp fritidspedagoger och fritidspersonal ser på sitt yrke ur ett status,makt och rollperspektiv
The aim for this paper is to investigate how a limited number of youth recreation leaders and leisure-time pedagogues view their vocational competence, which kind of power the persons in the essay experience to have in their workplace and which kind of status they experience that they have in comparison with other occupational groups in their schools. The final aim of the paper is to find out how teachers interact with youth recreation leaders and leisure-time pedagogues when it comes to their vocational competence. My questions are:How do a group of youth recreation leaders and leisure-time pedagogues view their professional assignments?How does a group of youth recreation leaders and leisure-time pedagogues view their power in their workplace in comparison with other occupational groups?How do a limited number of youth recreation leaders and leisure-time pedagogues view their status in relation to teachers, other occupational-groups and parents? Which role have my respondents been assigned by their team and why do they think they have gotten that role?To answer these questions I have used a qualitative method which includes four in depth interviews. The overall theoretical perspectives are symbolic interactionism and social constructivism. My chosen terms are: status, power, and role. The conclusions are that to be able to succeed as a youth recreation leader or leisure-time pedagogue you need to be sociable and be flexible due to the fact that you are always interacting with other people. My respondents mainly put emphasis on the social-skills of their students and they have a so called holistic perspective over their students which many of them mean that the teachers are lacking. My respondents all suggest that they have power in their workplace but in comparison with for example the teachers they have less power. The leisure-time pedagogues have been assigned more power due to the fact that they have an academic degree. When it comes to status my respondents think that people that work in the leisure-time center generally have a low status in society overall. However two of my respondents make a connection between status and work experience. All the people in my paper state that teachers and parents that are better informed about their vocational competence treat them with respect. Finally the role that they have been assigned seems to be a mixture between personal qualifications and what the group needed.