This paper addresses how emotionally challenging experiences during work-based education may influence the professional becoming of student teachers and medical students. We conducted a qualitative analysis of eight focus group interviews with undergraduates from two universities in Sweden who studied to become either physicians or teachers, and interpreted their experiences through Wenger’s theory of communities of practice. The findings show that students’ ideal view of how to be caring in their aspiring professional role as physician or teacher collided with existing practices, which affected them emotionally. In particular, the students found it challenging when norms and practices differed from their values of professionalism and when the professional culture within practices reflected hardness (physicians) or resignation (teachers). Both medical students and student teachers experienced that professional decision making and legitimacy challenged them emotionally, however in different ways and for different reasons. This study makes visible both general and specific aspects of how students view their future role in the welfare sector and challenging dimensions of professional practice. The findings bring into focus the question of how professional education can support students’ professional becoming in relation to their emotional challenges.

Specialpedagogens uppdrag och roll innefattar många olika ansvarsområden och arbetsuppgifter. Rektor är den som sätter ramar och därmed också skapar förutsättningar för hur det specialpedagogiska arbetet ska utformas på den skola där specialpedagogen är verksam. Det verkar vanligt att specialpedagoger själva är med och skriver sina egna arbetsbeskrivningar. Specialpedagogers uppdrag kan därmed komma att bli format i förhandlingen som sker mellan rektor och specialpedagog. Denna artikel tar utgångspunkt i ett examensarbete av Franzén och Ek Andersson (2023) för att diskutera rollen som en specialpedagog kan få på en skola.

Denna rapport är en del av Skolsamverkan Öst, Mottagningssamverkan, där LiU Skolsamverkan tillsammans med kommuner i Östergötland har tagit fram och prövat en kommunövergripande vägledning inklusive självskattningsformulär (ett för grundskollärare och ett för förskollärare). Självskattningsformulärens avsikt är att fungera som ett verktyg för att hitta de nyutexaminerades styrkor och utvecklingsområden under deras första år i yrket den s.k. introduktionsperioden. Tidigare studier har pekat på en del svårigheter i början av lärares yrke, samt fokuserat på mentorers stöd till nyblivna lärare. Det visar sig i forskning att det är viktigt att inte bara fokusera på vad nyblivna lärare inte kan, utan att arrangera samtal som fokuserar på utveckling och därmed att ge nyblivna lärare stöd att utforska arbetet som lärare. Därtill kan en mentor vara värdefull för att skapa en stöttande kollegial struktur som består av mer än en enskild mentor, med fokus på utbyte i en kollegial miljö. Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka erfarenheter från alla som är inblandade i introduktionsperiodens upplägg dvs. utbildningschefer, rektorer, mentorer och nyblivna lärares erfarenheter. Mer specifikt undersöks i rapporten vilka förutsättningar som finns för genomförande av introduktionsperioden. Slutligen undersöks hur de verktyg som finns framtagna i Mottagningssamverkan beskrivs med fokus på att synliggöra de nyutexaminerades styrkor och utvecklingsområden. Rapporten baseras på data som har samlats in via 41 enkäter i tre deltagande kommuner, på förskolor och grundskolor i årskurs F-9. Resultatet visar att samtliga mentorer och nyutexaminerade är positiva till introduktionsperioden. En mentor skriver att det är “viktigt att vi tar om hand våra nyutexaminerade kollegor, så vi får behålla dem i yrket”. Rapportens resultat diskuteras utifrån de förutsättningar som verkar ha störst betydelse under introduktionsperioden: vikten av central styrning, förutsättningar med fokus på tid och ekonomi och sist men inte minst mentorns viktiga roll där stödmaterial i form av kommunövergripande vägledning och självskattningsformulär ingår.

Early career teachers have been discussed as being particularly vulnerable to stress and emotional challenges. Even though there has been an increased understanding of the practice shock, and utilization of mentors during the beginning for early career teachers, the start of the profession for early career teacher is still considered as filled with stress and emotional challenges. Kelchtermans (2019) describe the deficit-thinking about early career teachers, as they are considered not capable enough. Instead, Kelchtermans propose early career teachers should be considered not from what they lack, but rather from a perspective of their strengths and potential. This relates to the ongoing identity processes of early career teachers that they find their sense of themselves as teachers in the working conditions that the experience. The ongoing identity process and consistent dilemmas of early career teachers influence the early career teachers coping strategies.The aim of the following study was toinvestigate how challenges of beginning teachers in their second year, with a focus on their continuous teacher identity development. In the study, I adopted Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT), as this together with symbolic interactionism offers a theory-method package with a focus on social processes, and participants perspectives. In addition, CGT engages in understanding the participant as an agentic person, resolving problems in relation to their main concern.Methodological designIn the study, 23 early career teachers were interviewed. The interviews focused on challenges the early career teachers experienced during their second year of teaching. The interviews were analysed utilizing CGT methods.Expected conclusions/findingsThe findings show consistent dilemmas of continuous teacher identity construction, where the participants describe two main dilemmas that they needed to work with. These were boundary demarcations as well as settling for less. Boundary demarcations focused on not engaging too much in pupils, as well as finding a role where challenges did not affect the participants. Settle for less involved lowering expectations of the influence they wanted to have over pupils. To regulate to need for boundary demarcations the early career teachers described wearing a mask, creating a professional self that was not as affected by events as the personal self. In relation to settling for less, early career teachers described needing to regulate their will to get across to pupils. This means that they thought they should not blame themselves too much if the pupils did not care to listen to what they had to say. These strategies to regulate are discussed as a way of coping with experienced challenges and what this means to the teacher identity, moving from an ideal position into being a little more experienced teacher. The reported research is relevant to Nordic Educational Research since it addresses the challenges of new teachers, and is of use to understand how subjective interpretations of the professional role is influenced by experienced challenges.

Lärarens vardag är fylld av möten med elever, kollegor och föräldrar. I dessa möten ställs de inte sällan inför dilemman, konflikter och svårigheter som väcker känslor...

Verksamhetsförlagdutbildning (VFU) är viktig del i lärarstudenters utbildning. Under VFU möter lärarstudenter situationer som de rapporterar som känslomässigt ansträngande, så som till exempel konflikter med elever. Handledning under VFU är en viktig del av lärarutbildningen, och handledarnas perspektiv på lärarstudenters utmaningar under VFU kan påverka deras handledning.

I ett forskningsprojekt har jag arbetet med att undersöka vad lärarstudenter identifierar som känslomässiga utmaningar under utbildningen. Studierna i projektet har också studerat vilka strategier lärarstudenter använder för att hantera dessa utmaningar.  Lärarstudenter beskriver hur känslor av professionell otillräcklighet uppstår under utbildningen, främst under verksamhetsförlagd utbildning. Detta hanterar studenterna genom att använda strategier som innebär att antingen acceptera att inget kan förändras eller att skjuta fram lärande till dess att de börjar arbeta.

Syftet med detta kapitel är att beskriva konflikter nyblivna lärare möter, och att förstå dessa genom att fokusera på lärarnas erfarenheter och skolans specifika miljö. Nyblivna lärare möter utmaningar som de hanterar genom att agera inom den mikropolitiska miljön som finns på en enskild skola. Kapitlet beskriver på så sätt möjligheter och hinder för nyblivna lärare och ger förslag på hur lärarstudenter och nyblivna lärare möjligen kan förbereda sig.

Learning to teach is an emotional endeavour and student teachers challenging emotions are recurrently created in teacher education. The aim of this study was to investigate student teachers' coping with emotionally challenging situations in teacher education. In the study, 22 student teachers studying their last year of teacher education participated through semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed using constructivist grounded theory methodology. The findings revealed that coping with emotionally challenging situations was connected to student teachers' main concern of the discrepancies between idealistic conceptions and experiences. This included wanting to have an extensive impact on future pupils as a student teacher and experiencing the ambition as potentially exhausting. In coping with this discrepancy, three strategies were used: change advocacy, collective sharing and responsibility reduction. The coping strategies are discussed in the light of existing literature and potential implications are addressed.

Avhandlingen behandlar lärarstudenternas och nyblivna lärares erfarenheter av obehagliga situationer. Frågeställningar innefattar: Vilka situationer beskriver lärarstudenter och nyblivna lärare som emotionellt påfrestande? Hur hanterar lärarstudenter och nyblivna lärare emotionellt påfrestande situationer som beskrivs? Avhandlingen innefattar fyra artiklar som behandlar dessa frågeställningar. Resultat visar att lärarstudenters hanterandestrategier innefattar (1) att skjuta fram lärande att hantera känslomässigt påfrestande situationer när de börjar att arbeta samt (2) att acceptera att det inte går att påverka situationer som är känslomässigt påfrestande och då enbart acceptera de förhållanden som skapar känslomässigt utmanade situationer. Andra strategier som studierna har visat innefattade att verka för förändring, vara en del av ett kollektiv eller att förminska ansvar som sätt att hantera känslomässiga utmaningar. Lärarstudenter etablerade gränser som ett sätt att hantera påfrestande situationer i relation till känslomässigt arbetet och i förhållande till olika relationer. De nyblivna lärarna var tvungna att förhålla sig till konflikter. Detta gjorde nyblivna lärare i studien genom att verka för sin autonoma position, genom att engagera sig i samarbete, genom att försöka påverka eller genom att alliera sig med arbetsplatsens värdeförmedling. Dessa strategier verkar vara sammanlänkade med olika konsekvenser, där autonomi och att vara en påverkanskraft i större utsträckning verkar leda till tankar om att byta skola eller att sluta som lärare.

This chapter focuses on theoretical pluralism and theoretical agnosticism as useful principles in my Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) research. In collaboration with a research team in Sweden, I have investigated student teachers’ perspectives on emotional challenges and coping. I gathered the data and was responsible for and took the lead in the analysis. In this chapter, I argue that theoretical pluralism and theoretical agnosticism are useful principles when engaging with literature and theories following a CGT approach. These concepts exemplify how grounded theories are dependent upon the researcher’s ability to make connections with multiple theories and remain open to and critical about possible connections. In this sense, research is not a neutral or value-free endeavour, but dependent upon the researcher’s contextual position, training, knowledge of the field, and experience of the phenomenon under study. In this chapter, I describe how theoretical pluralism and theoretical agnosticism have been used in my studies during different phases of a CGT study.

Constructivist grounded theory has earned a place in research worldwide and been applied in diverse fields. However, in educational research of teachers’ work in the classroom from the perspective of the teacher, it has had a lesser impact on research methodology. We argue for the benefits to educational research when using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. Our arguments focus on three concrete benefits: (1) Constructivist grounded theory focuses on participants’ perspectives, or main concerns, (2) by using an open, exploratory approach, and, (3) could involve investigating the relationships between the focused codes, preferably by using theoretical coding. We argue that constructivist grounded theory adds an analytical edge to work in classrooms, when skilfully deployed. These benefits with constructivist grounded theory differentiate the approach against other qualitative methods. Another important feature is focusing on the actions, and social processes, and thus making use of several theoretical codes. As we will outline in this paper, these features of constructivist grounded theory could help produce theoretical insights that could be valuable additions to educational research and educational practices

Internationellt organiseras skolutveckling ofta som kollegialt lärande, som bygger på lärares professionella samarbete. Ändå visar få studier hur kollegialt lärande positivt påverkar skolmiljöer eller elevernas lärande. En sätt att organisera lärares professionella utveckling där forskningen kunnat uppvisa positiva resultat är att använda metoden rundor med fokus på undervisningskvalitet (Quality Teaching Rounds, QTR).

Både i forskning och i media finns det gott om exempel på de svårigheter som kan vara förknippade med att vara ny lärare. Under de senaste tre decennierna har olika typer av stöd utvecklats och implementerats för nya lärare internationellt. Det vanligaste stödet är att få en mentor, där en mer erfaren lärare ger råd till en yngre kollega. Trots goda intentioner har denna typ av stöd ibland fokuserat på brister hos den nyblivna läraren, vilket kan ha flera negativa och till och med kontraproduktiva bieffekter. Den här artikeln fokuserar på tre alternativa beskrivningar av lärare i början av karriären som beskrivs av Kelchtermans (2019). Dessa beskrivningar inkluderar den nyblivna läraren som en meningsskapande aktör, som en nätverkare och som en tillgång för skolan.

Teacher education involves encountering ethical dilemmas con- nected to teaching. Student teachers’ ethical dilemmas sometimes occur when ideals clash with experiences. The current study focuses on the challenges experienced by student teachers during work placement education. The aim of the study was to investigate ethical dilemmas student teachers experienced during work placement education, using the sensitising concept of the notion of care. The data consist of semi-structured interviews from 22 student teachers and were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory frame- work. The findings show that the ethical dilemmas reported by the student teachers regarded two influential agents in work placement education: pupils and teachers. Concerning pupils, the dilemmas involved encountering pupils living in poor circumstances as well as experiencing aggression from and among pupils. When it comes to teachers, dilemmatic experiences stemmed from teachers who were disillusioned and derogatory talk in the teacher lounge.

Special educators are considered essential in schools, both in the regular system and in the separate special needs system. It is important to understand how special education is envisioned among teachers who choose further study in this field. The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about what motivates teachers to gain further qualifications to become special educators. The study is based on 158 written self-reports from students studying special education. These reports were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal six themes: ‘Thirst for knowledge, tools and science’, ‘Achieving better results as a teacher’, ‘Improving career opportunities’, ‘Getting away: giving up teaching in a classroom setting’, ‘Influence: helping pupils and teachers’ and ‘Developing schools: identifying deficits in schools’ ways of working with special needs education’. These themes are discussed in relation to special educators’ work, their jurisdictional control and how their reasons relate to supporting or dismantling the dual system of special education.

Beginning to teach after teacher education is commonly depicted as an emotionally challenging period. Beginning teachers deploy stra- tegies to cope with the emotionally challenging transition from tea- cher education and starting a position as a teacher. One way of coping is trying change the origin of the challenges. The aim of the study was to investigate how teachers in their last year as student teachers and their first year as teachers make meaning of a change advocacy strategy to cope with challenging situations as teachers. A qualitative interview study was performed. Twenty-five participants were inter- viewed while studying in their last year of teacher education, and 20 were interviewed again after having worked as a teacher for a year. In between, 68 self-reports were collected. The material was analysed using constructivist grounded theory tools. The findings show that as student teachers the participants identified two prerequisites to be able to use the change advocacy strategy as beginning teachers: (1) establishing teacher ambiguity and (2) challenging the perceived negative mindset. When utilising a change advocacy strategy as begin- ning teachers, the participants tried to reform teaching practices and attain a position of competence.

Learning to work as a teacher in teacher education includes encountering schools during work-based learning. This period includes having mentoring teachers assigned to support student teachers in acquiring teaching skills and guiding in understanding teachers’ work. Mentoring conversations are commonly carried out, but rarely focus on student teachers’ coping with emotional challenges. Therefore, we aimed to investigate mentoring teachers’ perspectives on scenarios on student teachers’ reported emotional challenges. We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study where 22 mentoring teachers were interviewed, using scenarios from student teachers’ narratives. The data were analysed through initial, focused, and theoretical coding. The findings show that mentoring teachers’ main concern was that student teachers should consider all situations, including emotionally challenging episodes, as opportunities for learning. When discussing the scenarios, they emphasized strategies that involved regulating, engaging/helping, being exemplary, and taking charge. The findings are discussed in relation to existing literature on mentoring. This study is theoretical and educational significant as we use the perspectives of the mentoring teachers in relation to student teachers’ emotional challenges. Mentoring teachers’ perspectives are important, if we want student teachers experiences during work-based learning to soften the practice shock associated with being a new teacher.

Mentor teachers have a prominent role in teacher education as they work in close cooperation with student teachers during their work-based education. Research has shown that mentor teachers rarely focus on student teachers’ coping strategies (Heikonen et al., 2017) and issues related to power imbalances (Lilach, 2020), which in turn may impede the relationship between the mentor and student teacher. Nonetheless, when the relationship between them is set on cooperation, there are numerous studies pointing to the importance of the mentor teacher.  This study aims to explore the mentor teachers’ perspectives on having challenges creating positive relationships with student teachers. In this process, mentor teachers judge the student teacher’s suitability for working as a teacher in both a formal and informal manner. Thus, we explore mentor teachers’ meaning-making of how they approach student teachers if they judge that they are not making any progression during the work-based education.  We adopted symbolic interactionism and constructivist grounded theory as a theory-methods package (Charmaz, 2014). GT is a flexible, systematic and iterative approach from which we used coding, memo-writing and constant comparison to guide data collection and analyse the data.  The study builds from two sets of interviews, exploring the emergent categories of suitability and distance in these interviews. In total, 25 mentor teachers were interviewed during the first interview, and after approximately seven months 22 of the mentor teachers were interviewed again. The findings show that mentor teachers engaged in a suitability judgment of their student teachers that focused on (1) compliance of the student teacher to school-based norms, and (2) how they perceived that student teachers engaged in using their experiences to progress. This suitability judgment was used to develop actions meant for the student teacher to use in developing their practice as teachers. A reported concern was when mentor teachers perceived that student teachers did not follow their instructions and thus, according to the mentor teachers, did not progress. This lack of progression was found in relation to student teachers’ teaching and ability to act socially with pupils and colleagues.  This study is relevant to Nordic Educational Research since it addresses mentors’ perspectives on establishing co-operative relationships with student teachers. We hope this might be of use in the discussion about ways to support mentor teachers when they face problematic situations with student teachers.

Student teachers commonly report encountering emotional chal- lenges in work placements during teacher education. Even so, the perspective of mentoring teachers has been given little attention regarding the student teachers’ emotional challenges. In this study, the authors’ aim is to investigate what mentoring teachers perceive to be the emotional challenges student teachers face and what support they think they can offer student teachers. A sample of 25 Swedish mentoring teachers participated in an interview study. According to the findings, the mentoring teachers reported three main emotional challenges that they perceived that student tea- chers encounter: conflicts with/among pupils, encountering diverse pupil populations and dealing with failure. Mentoring teachers’ reports can be understood in the light of their idea of what work placement should be. Their rationales included the need for stu- dent teachers to be either exposed to ‘reality’ or protected from worst-case scenarios.

Work-based learning is an influential period of teacher education, where a mentor teacher is assigned to support the student teacher. Mentoring conversations between the mentor teachers and student teacher seldom cover how student teachers cope with emotional challenges. Therefore, we aimed to investigate mentor teachers' perspectives on student teachers' reports of emotional challenges. The study had a particular focus on actions the mentor teachers described as preferable in reacting to scenarios of emotional challenges reported by student teachers. We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study and interviewed 22 mentor teachers. The findings of the study show that mentor teachers' main concern revolved around student teachers' understanding of challenges as learning opportunities. According to mentor teachers' descriptions, the preferred actions in their role as mentor teachers were to regulate, engage/help, be exemplary, and take charge. Thus, our study shows that mentor teachers intended to aid student teachers in navigating emotional challenges.

Background: For prospective teachers, the school-based learning component of their teacher education programme is a crucial, and often demanding, part of becoming a teacher. During this time, mentor-teachers work in close collaboration with student teachers, who are often teaching in an actual school setting for the first time. As the relationship between mentor-teacher and student teacher is pivotal to the quality of work-based learning and to supporting the professional development of prospective teachers, more needs to be understood about this complex dynamic.

Purpose: Our study aimed to contribute to this area by investigat- ing, from the viewpoint of mentor-teachers, how student teachers respond to the demands of work-based learning. It had a particular focus on mentor-teachers’ perceptions of student teachers’ emo- tional challenges associated with teaching and engagement. Methods: Data consisted of interviews with 22 experienced mentor -teachers from five different municipalities. Data were analysed qualitatively, using tools aligned with a constructivist grounded theory approach.

Findings: Describing teaching as a complex practice, the mentor- teachers regarded proactive engagement in developing profession- alism, and ability to make appropriately differentiated adjustments to their teaching as important criteria in their evaluation of student teacher progression. The mentor-teachers described student tea- chers’ emotional challenges in relation to these and discussed support strategies.

Conclusions: The findings of the study highlight the complex dynamic of work-based learning and the key role that mentor- teachers can play in supporting the development of prospective teachers entering the profession, including the navigation of emo- tionally challenging situations.

ABSTRACTStudent teachers have to cope with distressing emotions during teacher education. Coping is important in relation to both attrition and bridging the gap between being a student teacher and starting work. The data consist of semi-structured interviews with 25 student teachers, which were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory framework. The aim of the current study was to examine student teachers? perspectives on distressing situations during teacher education, as well as how boundaries were established as a way of coping with emotions related to these situations. The findings show that the student teachers? main concern was to make sense of the imbalance between resources and the demands placed by distressing situations. As a coping strategy, student teachers established professional boundaries linked to emotional labour and relationship maintenance.

Beginning teachers face complicated socialization processes, affected by micro-political contexts. Starting to teach may entail conflicts, rivalry, competition, as well as alliances and collaboration with colleagues and other staff of a school. Beginning teachers need to understand the social setting where they start their career. The aim of the study was to use the narratives of beginning teachers to investigate the emotionally challenging situations they face, with a focus on how their perspectives and definitions of these situations guided their actions and made coping possible. Since we were interested in the perspectives of the participants, and their definition of the situation, we adopted a symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework. In order to investigate the actions and processes involved constructivist grounded theory (GT) methodology was used. We used GT tools of coding, memo-writing and constant comparison as flexible guidelines, and not as a linear mechanical process. 25 participants took part in the study, which comprise of 68 written self-reports as well as 20 semi-structured interviews. Seven of the participants were male, seventeen were female and one identified as non-binary. Their ages spanned from 22 to 56 (M=28) years old and they were recruited from six teacher-training programmes in Sweden through e-mail contact. All interviews were conducted after the beginning teachers were at the end of their first year of teaching. The beginning teachers experienced conflicts when meeting a micro-political arena starting to teach. The conflicts were either interpersonal or intrapersonal. The interpersonal conflicts were related to teaching methods when it came to colleagues, distrust among colleagues and from parents, as well as conflicts in the student-teacher interaction. Intrapersonal conflicts involved feelings of being “good enough”, having to set limitations to time and engagement, as well as suppression of emotions. To cope with the conflicts beginning teachers had strategies related to being a part of the micro-political context of a school. When doing so, strategies of autonomy, influencing, collaboration and conformity was adopted. There was a reciprocal relationship between being autonomous and using an influencing strategy, as well as between collaboration and conformity. Sometimes, if the person using an influencing strategy found the right ally it could also lead to collaboration among the parts to amend, tolerate or alter the problem with the conflicts. The use of a certain coping strategy is likely to have an affect on turnover or attrition intentions among the participants, as the analysis revealed that the beginning teachers who adopted an influencing or autonomous coping strategy were more likely to talk about changing workplace or school. The reported research is relevant to Nordic Educational Research since it addresses beginning teachers coping with emotionally challenging situations starting to teach, and could involve issues valuable to teacher education. We hope this might be of use in the discussion about beginning teachers attrition and turnover intentions.

The aim of the present study was to use the narratives of beginning teachers to investigate the emotionally challenging situations they face, with a focus on how their perspectives and definitions of such situations guided their actions and made coping possible. A short term longitudinal qualitative interview study was adopted. Twenty participants were interviewed at the outset of their last year of teacher education and then followed up with an interview at their first year of teaching. In between self-reports were written in addition to the interviews. The material was analysed using constructivist grounded theory tools. The findings show that new teachers experienced conflicts that were both interpersonal (with students, parents and colleagues) and intrapersonal (being ‘good enough’; establishing boundaries related to time and engagement; suppression of emotions) as they started out in teaching. In order to cope with these challenges, the beginning teachers used various strategies including collaboration, conformity, influencing and autonomy.

The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the suitability of their student teacher peers after experi- encing challenges to their emerging teacher identity, resulting in emotional responses. A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted in which 18 student teachers participated. Data from 14 individual interviews and one focus group were analysed. Findings revealed that encounters between student teachers sometimes resulted in emotional responses. When the student teachers were emotionally challenged by their peers, their emerging teacher identity was challenged. In addition, the student teachers com- pared themselves with those peers whom they judged as unsuita- ble and constructed a self-image of being suitable. This comparative process was connected to three suitability norms: (1) being perceived as having the right values (2) being perceived as having social skills and (3) being perceived as committed to in- depth learning as a teacher.

Student teachers recurrently and spontaneously talk of burnout when considering coping with future teacher duties. The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the concept of burnout before starting to teach. In this qualitative constructivist grounded theory, data material from four focus groups and 52 semi-structured interviews (N=67) were analyzed. Findings reveal that student teachers use the concepts of burnout as the ultimate and potential risk of not being able to cope with future teacher duties. In using this talk of teachers as prone to suffer burnout, student teachers portrayed the work of teaching as negotiations of individual boundaries to protect against work demands. The student teachers saw these negotiations as part of future teaching endeavors.

Student teachers recurrently and spontaneously talk of burnout when considering coping with future teacher duties. The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the concept of burnout before starting to teach. In this qualitative constructivist grounded theory, data material from four focus groups and 52 semi-structured interviews (N=67) were analyzed. Findings reveal that student teachers use the concepts of burnout as the ultimate and potential risk of not being able to cope with future teacher duties. In using this talk of teachers as prone to suffer burnout, student teachers portrayed the work of teaching as negotiations of individual boundaries to protect against work demands. The student teachers saw these negotiations as part of future teaching endeavors.

Research on the transition from teacher education to beginning to teach have focused on the ability to teach, as well as on classroom practices, and how complicated socialisation processes impede developing skills when starting to teach. The aim of the study was to investigate emotionally challenging situations during teacher edu- cation and when starting to teach, with a focus on how the partici- pants’ perspectives and coping strategies changed over time. In this study, 20 participants were followed during their final year of teacher education and into their first year of teaching. Data was collected through interviews and written self-reports. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted. We found that new teachers experience three main emotional phases as they move from teacher education and into teaching, namely (1) opposite positions, (2) enthu- siasm mingled with fear, and (3) a rollercoaster of emotions. Emotions and coping strategies linked with the phases are illustrated, and practical implications are discussed.

Vi har studerat forskning som handlar om elevassistenters arbete för elever i behov av särskilt stöd. Syftet med studien är att undersöka elevassistenters arbete i en allmän och friare roll som resurs i skolan och om det finns forskningsstöd för den typen av insats. Genom sökningar identifierades 16 artiklar och resultaten i artiklarna användes för att genomföra en tematisk analys. Resultaten visar att elevassistenter i en fri roll agerar som (1) Undervisare av elever i behov av särskilt stöd, (2) Experter på elever i behov av särskilt stöd, (3)Stödfunktion till lärare och (4) Upprätthållare av en särskild elevsuppmärksamhet. Temana diskuteras, i ett relationellt perspektiv, utifrån riskeroch möjligheter med elevassistenters arbete med elever i behov av särskiltstöd. En slutsats vi drar av den granskade forskningen är att det är tveksamtom elevassistenter ska användas som primära undervisare för dessa elever.

I skolan ökar användningen av resurspersonal för elever i behov av särskilt stöd. ”Resurserna” innefattar främst elevassistenter, lärarassistenter och fritidshemspersonal, men även andra personalkategorier. Det gemensamma för personalgruppen är att den generellt sett har liten eller ingen utbildning för att möta elever i svårigheter. Trots det är det vanligt att resurspersonal, särskilt elevassistenter, anställs för att arbeta med elever i behov av särskilt stöd, men arbetsuppgifterna är sällan tydligt formulerade.

The Education Act in both Sweden and Norway stipulates that schools must enable all pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that form the basis for continued learning and active participation in working life and society (Opplæringslova, 1998; SFS 2010:800, 2010). 

In a report of Scandinavian research published between 2008–2017, Kermit (2018) concludes that children and adolescents with HL perform below peers in school, and that they often struggle with social relationships in kindergarten and school, thus running a higher risk of psychosocial problems compared to peers with typical hearing. It has been found that children and adolescents with HL are not involved in making decisions about their learning environment, including special needs education support.

We conducted a pilot study using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), investigating how psychosocial health in children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing (D/HH) in Norway, was related to peer relationships and educational support as reported by their guardians.

As a follow up to the surveys, we will conduct focus group interviews with teachers of children who D/HH to investigate their experiences of the educational support for, and psychosocial health of, these children.

Preliminary results from the surveys showed that guardians reported significantly higher SDQ scores (M= 10.5) than the normative data (M= 5.8). Descriptive data for our sample showed that children in compulsory integrated school scored higher on both internal (emotional, hyperactivity) (M=6.20) and external (peer problems, conduct) (M=5.12) scales than children attending school for hard-of-hearing (Internal M= 3.83, External M= 3.67). 

Additional statistical analysis will be presented and discussed within Bronfenbrenner’s Socio-Ecological Framework as a sensitizing concept. Further implications and future research will be discussed.

The current study examined whether different motives for entering teacher education and different coping strategies in distressful situations during teacher training were associated with teacher efficacy among student teachers. A sample of 517 Swedish student teachers completed a questionnaire. According to the findings from multivariate regression analysis, student teachers who scored higher in intrinsic and altruistic motives and cognitive restructuring, and lower in self-criticism, tended to show greater teacher efficacy.

Vocational training programmes in higher education encompass, as learning objectives, the development of relational skills and professional judgement, especially in welfare professions such as policing, teaching and healthcare, where know-how about managing close contact with people is a prerequisite. Based on a cross-professional analysis, the current article explores how students from three different professional education programmes – teacher education, police training and medical education – construct professional judgement in group discussions and interviews. The results show that participants construct professional judgement as relationships between three different dimensions: personal ethics, educational standards, and professional practice. When discussing professional dilemmas, students utilise these three different dimensions to argue for the moral or ethical soundness of their choices. The results of the study shed light on the importance of providing students with opportunities to reflect openly on professional judgement in different ways, even though such reflections may not always be formally assessed. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates similarities between the three programmes that we analysed, as well as similarities in students’ reflections regarding essential aspects of the professions.

The present study focuses on challenges to the work of teachers as a result of a Swedish educational reform that mandates schools guarantee pupils receive early learning support concerning reading, writing, and number sense. The outcome of reforms is connected to how teachers achieve agency in their work , and we use the ecolo- gical model of teacher agency as an overarching theoretical frame- work and analytical dimension. The study involved interviews with 14 teachers, and the focus was on a) how teachers identify pupils in need of support and how this support is carried out, (b) how teachers would like this identification to be carried out, and how teachers would like to support pupils with weak number sense. Teachers described a ‘dilemmatic space’ (cf. Fransson and Grannäs 2013), which affects how they achieved agency in developing pupils’ num- ber sense. The dilemmatic space described by teachers in this study is framed by necessary priorities pertaining to the cultural, structural, and material conditions of the current situation. According to the study’s results, whether teachers should perform the assessment merits discussion. The study concludes there is a risk that conducting assessments and offering support risks cancelling each other out.

DOI: 10.3384/venue.2001-788X.3183

Extra anpassningar ska kopplas till lärares ordinarie undervisning i klassrummet, snarare än till ett specialiserat och exkluderat särskilt stöd. Speciallärare och specialpedagoger är nyckelpersoner i arbetet med extra anpassningar, både i arbetet direkt med elever men också indirekt, genom stöd till lärare. I denna studie har vi uppmärksammat speciallärares och specialpedagogers specifika erfaren­heter av arbete med extra anpassningar. Det som framkommer är att extra anpassningar är en insats som deltagarna har tilltro till. Samtidigt framställs arbetet med extra anpassningar som komplext att tolka och att ge lärare stöd i. Ett möjligt sätt att tydliggöra specialfunktionens arbete är att använda sig av den organisatoriska stödstrukturen Respons To Intervention (RTI) som ramverk.

The present study aimed at comparing student teachers’ and medical students’ experiences of emotionally challenging situations during workplace education. Eight group interviews were conducted and data analyzed with a thematic content analysis. Findings suggest that both student groups meet similar challenges of experiencing various situations that are emotionally difficult. In order to manage these experiences, students are involved in processes of drawing boundaries. To manage emotions of strong compassion, or coming to close, students realize that they need to draw boundaries between the professional and the personal life. Students also draw boundaries to uphold their view of the professional role, to protect against influence from negative role models and a non-compassionate professional culture.