...och den ljusnande framtid är vår...: några ungdomars bild av sin tid vid riksgymnasium

Sammanfattning: This longitudinal study draws the attention to some adolescents' images of the living-, study- and learning situations into, through and out of the upper secondary school period. The aim implies an examination of the ways a study group with "severe physical disabilities" describes their experiences of phenomena in connection with processes of co-operation and influence. References with particular relevance to the study are theories about normality and deviance, holistic approaches, co-operation and participation as well as a narrower limitation towards physical disabilities and studies. A series of interviews was carried out during a period of eight years and an analysis of qualitative data forms the result of the study. In the result an undivided interest is directed towards the adolescents´ variable image of themselves and of the surroundings as well as the more permanent image of co-operation with and within their surroundings. The result shows that the adolescents´ experiences do not reach a stability during the upper secondary school period. The variation is in several ways a characteristic feature and the study shows among other things the stationary qualities of the variation. The adolescents encounter various expressions of normality/deviance, holistic/atomistic qualities together with expressions of participation/limitations of participation. Different structures of co-operation with and around the adolescents influence their experiences of school difficulties and co-operation with those of the same age. Range of variation, time and holistic aspects and the collected results this study in other respects contribute to, show a complexity within a field of special education which makes it difficult to find suitable forms for miscellaneous organizational and individual phases of variation during a period of upper secondary education of several years. This requires that decisions about and the work with adolescents from macro- to micro levels originate in the conception of "the diversity of the adolescents as a resource", where one ideal condition is difficult to reach. Heterogenity and variability imply planning ahead, sensitive awareness, a wide range of competence, a desire for co-operation, imagination and a willingness to change.