En studie av det specialpedagogiska uppdraget

: som en social konstruktion

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to elucidate the special education assignment from a social constructivist perspective. Historically, the special education assignment has changed in line with politics and the culture of education, which may have entailed difficulties in consolidating a professional group. It can also mean that there are ambiguities about the assignment, which in turn enables different interpretations based on personality and context. In this study, the special pedagogical assignment is studied through conversations with some persons who have special pedagogical competence. The idea is to try to understand the special education assignment inspired by Berger and Luckmann's (2010) three-sided model, which means that institutions undergo a series of processes to finally become socially accepted. Institutions in this context may be a professional group or a division of labor. Berger and Luckmann use terms such as externalization, objectification and finally internalization. When an internalization has taken place, something is socially accepted as well. The interviews in the study can be described as an unstructured interview, since the interviews are arranged according to different categories. Ahlefeld Nisser's (2009) knowledgeable conversation has been an inspiration in the interviews, since we can meet as equals and with mutual respect. The special education assignment is described by the respondents as difficult to interpret, and in the conversations various dilemmas emerged that are difficult in, for example, the meeting with other educators. Based on the respondents' story in this study, several different processes emerge which indicate that much in the special education assignment is not internalized, that is, fully accepted by the environment.