Educare (Sep 2007)
Profession, forskning och praktik: 30 rektorers syn på specialpedagogisk professionalitet
Abstract
This article is a synthesis of four investigations made by students at the special educational program at Malmö University. It describes how headmasters experience the professional role of the special needs pedagogue in schools. Research questions concerning the relationship between higher education and school practice are elucidated in the article. The responses are analyzed and problematized with the help of von Wright’s Action theory as well as of Dahllöf’s frame factor theory. In the interviews headmasters describe the special educational activities and the special pedagogue profession as multifaceted and complex. This is a situation which impedes good functioning and effective use of competence resources. Moreover, headmasters are frequently caught between the visions of policy instruments and school practice, not least concerning situational acting, and the question of short or long term planning and acting.
