Barns akt rskap och identitetsarbete i en s rskild udervisningsgrupp

The presented study concerns how schools handle children’s agency andidentity work as they negotiate and categorize school problems in a special needs unit. It is an ethnographic study from a Swedish special needs unit, attended by a group of 5 boys (7–12 years). According to school standards the boys are defined as “children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties” (SEBD). The results show that the children are described mostly in negative terms with one-sided focus on deficits. The children have low participation and reduced space for agency. They are controlled by the teachers regarding how they should behave, talk, account for themselves, act and feel. On the other hand the boys position themselves as activeagents by indirectly resist or subordinate themselves to problem definitions and categorizations. Although schools are emphasizing that students should improve their social behaviour and be part of the activities in the classroom, it is paradoxically leading to children being declined agency and responsibility in relation to themselves, their behaviour and feelings.