Kategoriseringar av barn i förskoleåldern - Styrning & administrativa processer.

The objective of this dissertation is to visualise and question categorisation of “special-needs children” and to process different perspectives in elucidating development and deviant behaviour in preschool children. The aim is also to visualise how special-needs children are defined, and in what ways it is made legitimate to define children as “deviant”. In continuation of this, the dissertation investigates the types of knowledge and management rationale that have an impact on the administrative process regarding the pedagogical organisation.

The dissertation shows that categorisation of “special-needs children” has different impacts and functions in different contexts. Implementation level: Social pedagogues tend to distance themselves from using generalising concepts. Instead they assume a relational view in their work on defining deviation in children and in this way adjust themselves to work techniques which require a more individual-based practice. Administrative level: The child is often subject to financial rationality, where resource aspects are dominant. Professionals in this area are talking more about resources than about the measures to be initiated in relation to the individual child, and the relationship between the child and the special-needs assistant is reduced to the issue of numbers of hours. Professional sociology level: Children who are diagnosed by a psychiatrist will get maximum support. 

The basis of this study is in social constructivism and discourse analysis. Data collection was qualitative and consists of document and policy analysis, recordings of meetings as well as interviews.

Lutz, K. (2009). Kategoriseringar av barn i förskoleåldern - Styrning & administrativa processer. Malmö: Malmö högskola.