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- Olsson, Maria, Lektor, et al.
(författare)
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Between an educational task and an idea for treatment : multiprofessional collaboration for supporting children "at risk" – a coordinator role in pedagogical practice
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. - : Routledge. - 0031-3831 .- 1470-1170.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes knowledge regarding professionals’ experiences, conceptions, and expectations of a coordinator role in preschools/schools while multiprofessionally collaborating for supporting children "at risk". Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with professionals involved in a project in a Swedish municipality intended to prevent children from getting into difficulties. Procedures for thematic analysis were followed, and Billig’s ideological dilemmas were used as a methodological tool. A coordinator role, assigned to head teachers, emerges as tense where dilemmas need to be addressed. The dilemmas are related to opposed, overarching ideas – education for "all" versus treatment for specific children – which require coordination. This article suggests that dialogues between actors need to be held when opposite positions can be articulated. To initiate and maintain such dialogues, a coordinator role is important.
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- Randell, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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A Qualitative Study of Professionals' Experiences and Challenges in the Early Identification of Psychosocial Concerns in Children
- 2023
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Ingår i: Health & Social Care in the Community. - : Hindawi Publishing Corporation. - 0966-0410 .- 1365-2524. ; 2023
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim. Early intervention and detecting early signs are often cited as a goal by professionals working with children, but detecting and describing early signs is not well explored. Thus, the study’s aim was to explore professionals’ experiences and challenges in the early identification of psychosocial concerns in children aged 0–16.Materials and Methods. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 26 professionals (e.g., nurses, psychologists, social workers, teachers, principals, and managers) working with children. The participants engaged in a pilot cooperation model between preschools, schools, social services, and healthcare to reach out early to children in need of support. The interviews were analyzed using thematic network analysis.Results. Four organizing themes were created as follows: “The idea of promoting and preventing is the key to success,” “Identifying the children who need support and intervention,” “Identifying observable early signs,” and “Occupied with children needing immediate support.” The organizing themes were interpreted into one global theme as follows: “All want an early intervention but putting it into practice is challenging.”Conclusion. The study shows that it is difficult to identify children in need of psychosocial support at an early stage because the early signs are difficult to detect. Thus, our results suggest that both preventive interventions targeting all children and specific interventions for those in need of support are needed to promote health and wellbeing.
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- von Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, 1953-
(författare)
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Can collaborative consultation, based on communicative theory, promote an inclusive school culture?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Issues in educational research. - New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. : Australian Institutes for Educational Research. - 0313-7155 .- 1837-6290. ; 27:4, s. 874-891
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes to furthering our knowledge of how collaborative consultation, based on communicative theory, can make teachers’ learning from, and with, each other an inclusive process, and thus promote an inclusive school culture. The aim is to study special education professionals’ experiences of, and reflections on, leading collaborative consultations. The data consists of critical reflection (collaborative meta-consultation) in groups of special education professionals (consultants) and one researcher. The focus of the collaborative meta-consultations was on the consultations that the consultants held with groups of teachers. The data has been analysed using qualitative content analysis. Besides identifying some basic conditions, certain strategies and approaches have also been identified to make collaborative consultation an inclusive process. Collaborative consultation can promote an inclusive school culture if the concept of inclusion embraces how professionals collaboratively examine their practice, strategies, and values.
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- von Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, 1953-
(författare)
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Can counseling support the vision of inclusive education? : Experiences from the project: “Learning for democracy: Partner-driven North/ South collaboration on Inclusive Education”
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inclusive education models have been in focus in a collaborative project between the Ministries of Education in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, Stockholm university, MIET Africa as well as universities in Southern Africa in 2011-2013. The intention was to contribute to a comparative knowledge of educational democracy as well as to strengthen the South African expertise in the area of inclusive education. This was done by co-constructing a mutual communicative knowledge model in which practice and theory met. The project focused on dialogues in six workshops with people with local experiences (e.g. local governments, member of organizations, parent groups) as well as other socially active professionals ( school principals, school psychologists, teachers and social workers). It has been important to establish contacts with numerous professions that use communicative democratic processes within an educational context. (Habermas, 1995/1981; Sahlin, 2005; Ahlefeld Nisser, 2009). The project emphasized the need for democratic communication in which all participants would have the opportunity to interpret situations, discuss problems, propose justifications, express thoughts and criticisms.The main focus of one of the six workshops was counseling as a way to improve inclusion.The aim of the paper is to share my experiences from this project with a special focus on counseling as a way to promote inclusive education for sustainable development.How can counseling be understood in relation to inclusive education?What was experienced from the counseling task in relation to inclusion?Findings:Means have been identified to make counseling a democratic and inclusive process. An awareness of how to develop participants ethical values and attitudes. Strategies for democratic communication functioned in the same way in Southern African countries as in Sweden ConclusionThough an understanding of how counseling can improve inclusion was expressed, it was observed more on a rhetoric level than in practice.Conflicting strategies between rhetoric and practice was observed throughout some of the discussions. References Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, von. (2009). Vad kommunikation vill saga – en iscensättande studie om specialpedagogers yrkesroll och kunskapande samtal. Doktorsavhandling i specialpedagogik. Universitetsservice US-AB. Stockholm: Specialpedagogiska institutionen. Stockholms Universitet.Habermas, Jürgen. (1995/1981). Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.Sahlin, Birgitta. (2004). Utmaning och omtanke. En analys av handledning som en utvidgad specialpedagogisk funktion i skolan med utgångspunkt i tio pionjärers berättelser. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.
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- von Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges faced by national educational authorities when implementing school development : A qualitative case study about an attempt to create accessible teaching environments in a Swedish municipality’s pre-schools and schools
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Challenges faced by national educational authorities when implementing school development: A qualitative case study about an attempt to create accessible teaching environments in a Swedish municipality’s pre-schools and schools.1. Research topic/aimNational school authorities regularly introduce new concepts for school development to be implemented “at a grassroots level”. This paper addresses one such school development concept implemented in a Swedish municipality. Its goal was to increase children’s’ and students’ access to learning environments in schools and pre-schools. Implementation of this pedagogical concept was to proceed over a longer period of time and be linked to systematic quality work carried out in the municipality. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how the implementation process was perceived by the school administration, teachers and other personal during the time the concept was introduced and thereafter.2. Theoretical frameworkThe point of departure for this study is how the implementation process is related to what in Sweden is referred to as chain of governance. The chain of governance is the main principal for the organizational framework that creates structure for top-down management and as such is central to describing and understanding the implementation process within this framework. Implementing educational concepts is often considered relatively unproblematic by school authorities, however there are indications that there are a number of difficulties to overcome.3. Methodological designThe study is based on a qualitative case study that is limited to one preschool, one school and the project's steering group. The research design can be characterized as an ongoing evaluation project, a term that has been used more and more in recent years related to different types of development projects in order to achieve a number of advantages pertaining to evaluation, research and organizational development. A central idea of ongoing evaluation research is to increase the effectiveness of development work by providing ongoing feedback to project management, but also by contributing to systematic learning, generating new research-based knowledge as well as demonstrating alternative ways of solving problems.Collecting data from several sources allowed for data triangulation. The compilation and analysis of data is based on a hermeneutic interpretation related to the theoretical basis of the study. The results are based on both the managements’ and the staffs’ perspectives both of which are compared and contrasted to each other. Interest is directed at the processes that were initiated and what took place in those processes.4. Expected conclusions/findingsThe study is expected to show how the project's steering group acted to implement the evaluation tool, how they tried to transform the project concept into practical activities, how they informed and communicated with the staff concerned, how they organized the work and how they addressed the problems that arose along the way. This description is contrasted with how school management and staff describe what happened when the concept was applied in their organizations.5. Relevance to Nordic educational researchThere is a general interest in showing how centrally formulated concepts are implemented at the local level, because in many countries similar initiatives are being carried out, albeit in other areas. An increased understanding of this can contribute to increased general knowledge of implementation processes, but also in this specific case to problematize the concept of accessibility.
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- von Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Consultation in special needs education in Sweden and Finland : a comparative approach
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper compares the conditions and implementation of special education professionals’ consulting task in Sweden and Finland. The article first describes the background of the consulting teacher role and special education in Sweden and in Finland. Two different perspectives in the continuum on consultation are presented, followed by a description of how the consulting task is implemented and described in educational policy papers, and in research in the two countries. The analysis shows that while there are differences between the implementation of the consulting task in Sweden and Finland, there are also several similarities regarding the challenges faced. Differences can be understood according to traditions, education, and educational policy papers. The similarities shows that the consulting task must be clearly defined in policy documents, highlighted in education, and understood as a complex activity where both advice and reflection strategies are used. The consulting task can be more successful if the consultation is characterized by collaborative dialogues where the classroom teachers’ knowledge and the context are also taken in account.
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| 9. |
- von Ahlefeld Nisser, Désirée, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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Consultation in special needs education in Sweden and Finland : a comparative approach
- 2014
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Ingår i: European Journal of Special Needs Education. - : Routledge. - 0885-6257 .- 1469-591X. ; 29:3, s. 297-312
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article compares the conditions and implementation of special education professionals’ consulting task in Sweden and Finland. The article first describes the background of the consulting teacher role and special education in Sweden and in Finland. Two different perspectives in the continuum on consultation are presented, followed by a description of how the consulting task is implemented and described in educational policy papers, and in research in the two countries. The analysis shows that while there are differences between the implementation of the consulting task in Sweden and Finland, there are also several similarities regarding the challenges faced. Differences can be understood according to traditions, education, and educational policy papers. The similarities shows that the consulting task must be clearly defined in policy documents, highlighted in education, and understood as a complex activity where both advice and reflection strategies are used. The consulting task can be more successful if the consultation is characterized by collaborative dialogues where the classroom teachers’ knowledge and the context are also taken in account.
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