»Vi ser att [eleven] har behov av särskilt stöd» Om kunskapsbildning och informationshantering i skolans elevutredningar

Abstract

This study engages with the discursive construction of knowledge in school documents concerning pupils in need of special pedagogical support. In these texts, information from various voices is represented and recontextualized, meaning that images of pupils are negotiated and outlined, and ultimately knowledge about pupils and their learning is constructed discursively. The aim of the study is to investigate practices of knowledge construction in these texts. The data consist of 27 documents written by teachers who teach in lower secondary school (7th–9th grades). Drawing on linguistic discourse analysis, lexico-grammatical features are analyzed from both a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. The study shows how information originating from various voices is managed and framed by linguistic means in qualitatively different ways, and how the framing of information contributes to construction of several kinds of knowledge. In the analysis, five forms of framing are identified, along with six different types of voices. By quantifying the forms of framing as related to various voices, the study maps out the legitimization and delegitimization of various voices via the construction of different kinds of knowledge. Even though information from several voices is represented in the texts, it is primarily information from either the writer him/herself or written sources, such as previous documentation about pupils, that is legitimized by the writer.