"Våra ögon är en minoritet i skolans värld" : En kvalitativ studie om skolkuratorers upplevelser av att vara en professionell minoritet i ett tvärprofessionellt team

Sammanfattning: Abstract The purpose of the study was to investigate the professional school counselors' experiences of alone representing their professional group in an interprofessional team within the school's organization. To investigate the purpose, two research questions were designed: "What promotes or complicates the school social work for a school counselor who alone represents his or her professional group in the school's interprofessional work team?" and "How does the school counselor feel that the assignment is affected by being a professional minority?". To answer the study's purpose and research questions, five qualitative interviews were performed with school counselors who were or have recently been professionals in schools in Sweden. A qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the empirical evidence from the interviews. The results were then analyzed with the help of professional theory and organizational theory. The results showed that the school counselors perceived that their assignment was inexplicit, that there were no clear guidelines for their work assignment and that they had to shape the assignment themselves based on the existent requirements for preventive and promotional work. It also appeared from the results that there were challenges in pushing through issues in the interprofessional work team as the schools had a dominant pedagogical perspective. Furthermore, the results showed that the school counselors’ strategies for shaping their room for maneuver varied. Consistent for all school counselors was that a well-functioning communication and trust in their colleagues from other professions was necessary to build good relationships and thereby promote collaboration. The conclusion of the study was that the school counselors had different experiences of being a professional minority but that it could cause some difficulties in carrying out the assignment and that their low legitimacy claimed a well-functioning communication in the interprofessional work.