Fritidshemråd kommer typ random : En fenomenologisk kvalitativ studie om delaktighet och inflytande i fritidshemmet utifrån pedagogers och elevers upplevelser

Sammanfattning: From a historical perspective, the view of the child has changed significantly in the last century. An inclusive approach for children with, among other things, rights from the Convention on the Rights of the Child has emerged over time. Schools and leisure centers have slowly changed into doing more accepting and inclusive activities for pupils. The curriculum advocates that the activities of the leisure center should be structured according to a democratic structure. This should contribute to the pupils being able to participate and be involved but also have an influence in the leisure center. Pupils should feel that their free time is meaningful, developing and inclusive. Although there are common guidelines for how the practice is to be carried out, there may be differences in how it is carried out. Previous research shows that the task of school democracy is to shape pupils influence for future participation in democratic forums. In the leisure center, this means that pupils should be allowed to contribute their opinions and that the educators need to adhere to the central guidelines in the curriculum. The purpose of the study is to investigate different perspectives from both staff and pupils, how they experience participation and influence in the leisure center. We have chosen a qualitative research method and a phenomenological approach to investigate individual experiences of participation and influence in the activities of the leisure center. Our empirical data has been analyzed using Hart's ladder of participation (1997). The interviews show that there is a variation in how educators work with pupils’ participation and influence in the leisure center and their experiences around them. From a pupil’s perspective, the results show that pupils' experience of participation is often based on different choices in the activities decided by the educators. They also considered that the opportunity to influence via leisure center councils only appears occasionally. Therefore, we recommend the use of a working method that can be summarized via an acronym VIS. The abbreviation VIS stands for a forum for influence and collaboration. This is to ensure the quality of pupils' right of co-determination both at school and in the leisure center. This approach can be used in collaboration between the school and the leisure center when working with pupils’ councils.