A Jurisprudence of Insurgency: Lawyers as Companions of Unimagined Change

The purpose of this study has been to describe and analyze how seven Swedish preschool teachers and two special education teachers think and work with children who show a lack of social skills. The study method has been semi-structured interviews with the educators which have been analyzed and sorted under different themes/categories. The theoretical framework used in this study is sociocultural, relational and categorical perspectives. These perspectives have been chosen in order to better understand how teachers see their role in supporting children in need of special support. The environment in the preschool is found to be of great help and the teachers’ approach is of great importance.The research emphasizes the importance of integrating thinking, feeling and behavior. Social skills are an important part of the pre-school assignment. The children have to learn how to¨cooperate and empathize with others. The result of the study shows that children’s skills in playing and taking turns are the biggest issues in the daily activities. The teachers see an important task in helping children achieve social competence and helping children translate their emotions. The special education team assists greatly in the preschool teachers’ work with children in need of special support

Yrkesgruppers anspråk på arbetet med barn i behov av särskilt stöd

This study aims to illuminate preschool teachers describe which occupational groups – preschool teachers and special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) – claim jurisdiction (i.e. the area that the professional group controls) over the work with children in need of special support. The data consist of interviews with 15 preschool teachers. The analysis is based on Abbott's (1988) division of professional work into three aspects: a) formulation of a problem b) reasoning about the problem and c) treating the problem. One area where preschool teachers claim jurisdictional control is related to the formulation of the problem. When it comes to the aspect of the professional work which concerns reasoning about the problem, the preschool teachers report that SENCOs claim jurisdictional control instead. The results show a less straightforward image of the treatment of the problem. Preschool teachers sometimes report themselves to claim jurisdictional control over treatment and other times report that SENCOs have jurisdiction over the treatment of the problem. In the discussion, jurisdiction is related to the various aspects of professional work with children in need of special support and the issue of inclusion. The fact that SENCOs seem to have a strong jurisdiction over treatment and expert knowledge of children’s perceived shortcomings could contribute to the preschool teachers renouncing responsibility for children in need of special support. Another conclusion is that preschool teachers need to be strengthened in their professional roles and that increased special educational knowledge could contribute to preschool teachers feeling more secure in their professional roles and thus are able to meet all children’s needs in preschool.

Towards an Early Years Learning Framework

The Australian and state and territory governments are committed to the development of a national Early Years Learning Framework, and a process of consultation with the early childhood sector about the nature and content of the Framework is currently being undertaken. This Policy Brief is designed to provide policy makers and practitioners with an orientation to the general issues to be considered in the development of an Early Years Learning Framework. For the purposes of this Policy Brief, an early years curriculum or learning framework is defined as a set of principles and practices to guide those working with young children in children’s services (the focus is on early childhood settings rather than health or home-based services, important as those are). It is to be distinguished from a full curriculum statement (which might specify the content to be covered and/or the care and teaching processes to be used), and from early learning standards or benchmarks (that specify what young children should know and be able to do)

En skola för alla? En kvalitativ studie om hur lärare arbetar med barn i behov av särskilt stöd

The aim of this paper was to understand how teachers work with children with special needs and how their work can affect the child. More specifically the focus was to look at how teachers work in a class where there are children with special needs, how teachers ' practices relate to a categorical or a relational perspective and how the teachers' working effect the student. Five teachers were selected by a convenience sample due to reasons of availability and the interviews were based on semi-structured forms. Teachers' statements have been analyzed based on a categorical and relational perspective and conspiracy theory. The result shows that teachers have both a categorical and relational approach and that they are not consistent in how they think and act in relation to the perspectives, whether it is about how they deal with differences in a class, how they look at the diagnosis significance or if they advocate inclusion or not of children in need of special support. The results also shows that a categorical approach can be likened to the negative stamping when there is danger of exclusion and stigma and that a relational perspective can be likened to positive stamping where the child instead feel valuable

Beyond diagnosis: the relevance of social interactions for participation in inclusive preschool settings

Purpose: This study aims to explore the role of three specific factors within the child-environment interaction process - engagement, independence and social interactions - in influencing development and learning of children with disabilities in inclusive preschool settings. The main question is whether children can be categorised in homogenous groups based on engagement, independence and social interactions (proximal variables within a biopsychosocial framework of human development). The study also examined whether children with the same diagnosis would group together or separately, when trying to identify clusters of engagement, independence and social interactions, and additionally whether such clusters vary as a function of individual child characteristics, and/or as a function of structural and process characteristics of preschool environment. Methods: Data was taken from an intervention study conducted in mainstream preschools in Portugal. A person-centered cluster analysis was conducted to explore group membership of children with various diagnoses, based on their engagement, independence and social interaction profiles. Results: Results show that children clustered based on similarity of engagement, independence and social interaction patterns, rather than on diagnosis. Besides, it was found that quality of peer interaction was the only predictor of cluster membership. Conclusion: These findings support the argument that participation profiles may be more informative for intervention purposes than diagnostic categories, and that preschool process quality, namely peer interaction, is crucial for children's participation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Icehearts

The aim of the Icehearts activities it to prevent social exclusion of children and young people, promote well-being and inclusion, and complement the services provided by society. The practice is based on supporting the children and young people for a period of 12 years. The same adult supports the child through childhood and youth. The mentor supports the children at school, in hobbies, in their free time and in meetings with the authorities. The practice systematically utilises experiential and expert knowledge and research data. There is diverse national data on the effectiveness of the practice. Other corresponding practices do not exist. The long history of the practice, its rapid spread and the broad-based evidence of its effectiveness are in favour of even more extensive implementation of the practice. As development measures, it would be important to draw up a more extensive risk assessment plan and a plan for the instillation of the activities, and to invest in external communication and multi-method monitoring

KEPEMIMPINAN EFEKTIF KEPALA PAUD INKLUSIF : Studi Kasus tentang Kepemimpinan di PAUD Inklusif Nur Azizah Kabupaten Bandung

Fokus dan tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan perilaku kepemimpinan kepala PAUD dalam penerapan PAUD inklusif. Adapun yang melatarbelakangi penelitian ini adalah adanya urgensi dalam penyelenggaraan pendidikan inklusif pada jenjang pendidikan anak usia dini serta pentingnya faktor kepempinan Kepala PAUD sebagai penentu keberhasilan dalam mencapai tujuan pendidikan inklusif. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif dengan jenis pendekatan kualitatif studi kasus. Teknik penentuan narasumber/responden berdasarkan teknik snowball sampling. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara, observasi dan studi dokumentasi. Sedangkan analisis data melalui reduksi data, sajian data, verifikasi dan penarikan simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa kepemimpinan Kepala PAUD Nur Azizah sudah memenuhi kategori kepemimpinan efektif yang ditunjukan dengan perilaku membangun visi dan komitmen bersama, fokus pada pencapaian tujuan pembelajaran, memberdayakan sekolah dan pihak lain serta mengembangkan bawahan. Peneliti merekomendasikan diselenggarakannya capacity building kepemimpinan kepala PAUD inklusif, rekrutmen dan seleksi calon Kepala PAUD inklusif secara professional, pengembangan kapasitas guru pendidikan inklusif, dan dibentuknya forum pendidikan inklusif Kabupaten Bandung.;---The purpose of this study is to describe the leadership behavior of early childhood education principals in the implementation of inclusive education. As for the background of this research is the urgency in the implementation of inclusive education at early childhood education level as well as the importance of leadership factor of principal as the determinant of success in achieving the goal of inclusive education. The method used in this research was descriptive method with the type of qualitative approach of case study. Participants/respondents were determined based on snowball sampling technique. Data were collected through interview, observation and document study. While data analysis was done through data reduction, data presentation, verification and conclusion drawing. The results showed that the leadership of Nur Azizah kindergarten principal had fulfilled the effective leadership category which was shown by the behavior of building the vision and commitment together, focusing on the achievement of learning objectives, empowering schools and other parties and developing subordinates.Therefore, the following recommendations based on the study findings are organizing capacy building for principal leadership, professional recrutmen and selection for inclusive kindergarten principal, establishing inclusive education forums in Bandung District, developing teacher capacity for inclusive education

Att överbrygga klyftor i ett digitalt lärandelandskap : design och iscensättning för skriv- och läslärande i förskoleklass och lågstadium

The aim of the study was to extend the knowledge of how preschool class-teachers and primary school-teachers design and set learning milieus and learning situations by using digital tools in purpose to afford all children, including children in need of special support, literacy-development. The theoretical framework was grounded in design-oriented theory, with focus on how designs and settings made affordances for learning and meaning-making. The study is an ethnographically inspired case-study based on observations and interviews at one school in Sweden. Six teachers (two from preschool class and four from primary school), one resource pedagogue and one literacy-developer took part in the study. The design-orientated concepts of design and setting were used as tools for analysis of the data material. The results show that the teachers’ intentions for their designs for learning were focused on the children in need of special education. From a special educational perspective this is to be seen as a relational and democratic approach, an intention to close the gaps. The results also show that the teachers developed a transformation competence regarding the use of digital tools. In the initial phase of literacyeducation from the start of 1st grade, the teachers used only digital tools but in the 3d grade, they more often designed assignments for pen and paper use. Furthermore the results show how implementation of digital tool will lead to school development with support from the school board and principle and affordances for further education and collegial learning. The results will have pedagogical and didactic implications on micro-level as well as on macro-level, namely for the individual student as well as for teachers, organizations and teachers training