Outnyttjade möjligheter : En analys av de organisatoriska förutsättningarna för att undervisa högstadieelever med skolfrånvaro

Sammanfattning

This master's thesis examines the conditions of instruction for students who are not in their classrooms and the reasons behind the decisions of the instructions current form. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with five principals and a survey of forty parents. Michael Lipskys Street-level bureaucracy theory (2010) is the theoretical framework used in the analysis. The empirical data shows ways to follow lessons remotely for those who, for different reasons, are not in their classrooms. Some students receive instruction via a robot, while others meet teachers in small groups. Some receive school materials to work with at home, while some are prohibited from studying outside of school. According to the Education Act access to education must be equitable (Skollagen, SFS 2010:800). The result indicates that this is not the case for all students with school absence. The interviewed principals show commitment to supporting the student with school absenteeism, but several parents state that teachers have lost contact once the child became absent, leaving the children to fend for themselves or rely on their parents. The result can partly be explained by the fact that the law is ambiguous which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Principals weigh legal mandates differently. They use different coping strategies (Lipsky, 2010), for example categorizing students based on diagnoses, which can affect the students access to education. Unclear role expectations are another factor that can explain the lack of instruction for some students. The results indicate that it is possible to instruct students during absence if principals and school providers remove the obstacles identified in research. One obstacle is the ambiguity of the law and another is organizational gaps (Tyrstrup, 2014) where no one considers themselves responsible for the students education. With the right conditions, and flexible solutions, more students could participate in education.