Research both shows that knowledge from everyday practice with children is the key to helping children in difficulty and that it is difficult to bring this knowledge into play in interdisciplinary collaborative work.
Currently, there is an increasing focus on early intervention with regard to children of concern/in potential difficulties. As a consequence, there is a growing expectation that long-term societal issues must be addressed in the short-term by pedagogues in day care. But what are the conditions for educational practice to actually solve such problems, and what kind of multidisciplinary advice, help, and support are offered in educational practice in relation to these early interventions?
The goal of the research project
The purpose is to analyze challenges specifically related to the utilization of pedagogues' professionalism in interdisciplinary collaboration and to identifying action-possibilities as well as ways to reduce inequalities in authority and influence.
The research project examines
This study investigates how and to what extent pedagogues are given a voice in the interactions and collaboration between different professions. The project follows concerns identified in (early) educational practice, their discussions at multidisciplinary meetings in PPR (municipal pedagogical psychological counseling), attempts to implement recommendations in everyday educational practice, as well as delivery and receipt of feedback on the recommendations from educational practice at follow-up PPR meetings. In addition, various related documents (action plans and settings, etc.) will be analyzed in order to investigate how the involved professions influence the descriptions that move along through and are archived within the system.
Based on psychological and communication theories, the project observes and analyzes how and to what extent pedagogues' professional input influence interventions based on PPR counseling and how the use of pedagogues' professional input can be optimized in interdisciplinary collaboration.
The research project will provide insight into these issues and establish and disseminate knowledge about how these kinds of challenges might be handled. The overall question is:
Is it possible to qualify and balance the various professional inputs to the benefit of the child (both related to everyday practice and more abstract advisory input)?
The project will develop knowledge about how to get the pedagogues' expertise and insight into play at multidisciplinary meetings and how feedback on implementation may encourage and influence further development. Thus, the project opens the discussion on how the utilization of pedagogues' professionalism can be enhanced.
- How do interdisciplinary initiatives support educational practice in relation to children with presumed difficulties starting school?
- How do interdisciplinary initiatives support educational practice in relation to children with possible needs for psychiatric assessment?
Methodology
With its starting point in critical psychology, the project will work with practice research in combination with analytical language and communication approaches - including theories concerning nonverbal communication and positioning.
As mentioned above, cases will be followed from day care to the multidisciplinary meetings with PPR and back again. The empirical production will involve children, parents, pedagogues, psychologists, teachers, educational leaders, consultants, and pedagogical practice before, during, and after multidisciplinary meetings. Central to the analysis will be the meetings with PPR, which aims to establish acts and interventions in relation to specific children of concern.
Due to the Corona situation, the research project has been extended to December 31, 2021.
Project Manager:
Associate Professor Anja Hvidtfeldt Stanek
Research Group: CH:LD
+45 65 50 46 23
ahstanek@health.sdu.dk
www.sdu.dk/ansat/ahstanek
In collaboration with:
Rolf Hvidtfeldt,MA, PhD, Postdoc
Humanomics Research Centre
Department of Communication & Psychology
Aalborg Universitet
A.C. Meyers Vænge 15,
2450 Copenhagen SV, Danmark
(+45) 4162 2614
rolfh@hum.aau.dk
react.aau.dk