When academic demands limit teachers' work with relationships with young people in primary and lower secondary school

- Analysis of a development work centered on relationships as 'shortcuts' to achieve professional goals

Abstract

This article is based on the PhD thesis 'Practice development in spite of – confronted by conflictual practice in the primary school' and is a revised version of the PhD defense held at DPU in Emdrup on December 17, 2021. The article deals with a selected analysis and discussion of a development project where the teacher, Karin, works to strengthen relationships with young people who do not participate actively in the lessons, even if they are physically present. The starting point for the development work is Karin's perspectives on organizational, didactic and pedagogical dilemmas rooted in the specific school's practice. In addition, the common 'productive needs' (Osterkamp, ​​1975-6), i.e. the young people's and Karin's need to expand their availability over the conditions that they are both subject to and sometimes create through their participation in the teaching of mathematics. In the article, these 'productive needs' are about expanding the class community and creating space for dialogue about both academic and social matters, as a way to increase the young people's commitment. Especially for those who have linguistic or/and mathematical difficulties. The article shows how Karin, with reference to a selected research article, experiments with including the young people's perspectives on their learning and try out new didactic activities aimed at expanding the participation opportunities for both Karin and the young people - and not least the relationships between them. Research shows that the work with relationships in primary schools acts as a kind of 'valve' (Böwadt et al., 2019, p. 82) that reduces the strain from a time- and resource-pressured everyday life, making it possible to expand paradoxical dualities in the teacher's working life. The goal of the article is to inspire the development of new options for teachers, pedagogues, PPR psychologists and resource persons, despite the limitations of the primary school's current organization, which supports the relationship work, the young people's engagement in the primary school and the development of an inclusive learning environment in the primary school.

Keywords:
Practice development, practice research, teacher-student relationships, inclusive learning environments