Utmaning och omtanke : En analys av handledning som en utvidgad specialpedagogisk funktion i skolan med utgångspunkt i tio pionjärers berättelser

Sammanfattning: The present thesis reports an empirical study of how ten remedial teachers or special remedial teachers, all women, encountered reality as supervisors or tutors in schools during the 1990s. The study sought to define the conditions for supervision and tutoring in the remedial-teaching function.Data was collected in two steps. The preparatory step consisted of a scrutiny of Report DsU 1986:13 on the modified remedial-teacher function, and perusal of the referees’ comments thereon. The second step consisted ofinterviews with all ten participants three years after their training as supervisors/tutors at the Stockholm Institute of Education.Neither in the above Report nor in the referees’ comments was supervision defined or discussed. Despite this resistance, supervision is required by the macro level for the modified remedial-teacher function. Regarding the micro-level situation for supervising in school, two themes were distinguished: an organisational theme and a legitimacy theme. The informants saw school management, the organisation’s pre-understanding of supervision and the profession’s continual adaptation to areas of knowledge not possessed by teachers as important aspects. The legitimacy theme expresses how differentiation of the supervisory task and the design of teaching posts influence the implementation.The supervision/tutoring examined here is described through six experiential themes: the dialogical here-and-now-theme, the relational theme, the didactic ”technical” theme, the reflective and self-fostering theme, the change theme and the leadership theme.Remedial-educational supervision as described in the study appears as vertical but does not extend to the depth of therapeutic intervention. It is seen as an ethical act where consideration or recognition, rather than care, is a distinctive feature. Care may represent ”tacit” gender-loaded knowledge and needs to be discussed in educational contexts where supervision or tutoring is included in the special-remedial-teacher function.