Specialpedagog på uppdrag : En studie av några lärares förväntningar på specialpedagogens yrkesfunktion

Sammanfattning: Abstract Since 1990, special needs educators have been working in both primary and junior school. It has not been easy for the special needs educators to take authority when working with broader educational issues due to the varying requirements placed upon them. The object of this study is to examine how certain primary and junior school teachers describe their expectations of special needs educators and their professional role. I have conducted individual interviews with three primary school teachers and three junior school teachers, who have at least five years experience of working within their respective fields. The interviews have been scrutinized, and the results are presented with the help of five different themes. The results were then analysed in accordance with the two perspectives of special needs education described by Persson (2001) those of both the relational and the categorical perspective. Amongst other things the results show that the view of primary and junior school teachers with regards to special needs educators differ one from another. Primary school teachers have more expectations that the special educator will provide them with support for the whole working team, and how they can proceed to work with their pupils. Junior school teachers in contrast place more emphasis on the special educator working directly with the pupils, and not simply as a source of advice on working methods. From the analysis we can conclude that primary school teachers have a viewpoint which lies much nearer to that of the relational perspective, whilst the junior school teachers’ are more recognizable as having a categorical viewpoint. Keywords: Special needs educator, special education, one school for all, professional role, profession.