Vem är eleven med problematisk frånvaro i skolan? : En textanalys av debatten om problematisk frånvaro i skolan i svenska dagstidningar åren 2010–2020

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study has been to explore the different descriptions of children with school-absenteeism that has been presented in four well distributed newspapers in Sweden between 2010 and 2020. A social constructionist perspective and theories about medicalization and labeling has been used to show how written language in media has effects on how we view and work with this type of problem. For this study, 41 debate articles have been analyzed through a qualitative text analysis with focus on the linguistic, literary and substantive meaning. The result showed that the perception regarding which children that can be considered as having school absenteeism problems is changeable, since the idea of school absenteeism largely depends on whose opinion is being expressed and which perspective that dominates at the moment. A clear consequence of the psychiatric perspective dominating the (public) debate is that the holistic perspective needed to address this complex of problems is at risk of being lost.