Reflexive professional subjects: knowledge and emotions in the collaborations between teachers and educational-psychological consultants in a Danish school context

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, we investigate how the shift towards inclusive education in Danish schools changes and affects the ways in which educational-psychological advisory service (in Danish, PPR) units and school staff collaborate. Since inclusion is generally a matter of ensuring that every child can be accommodated within the mainstream school system, the increased inclusion agenda has altered the type of support that PPRs typically offer. Classic psychological assessments now play a lesser role, with PPR staff expected to conduct consultative work to promote the school staff’s reflection on their own practice, with the aim of supporting the inclusion of children. Based on an ethnographic study of the collaboration between PPR and school staff, we investigate the impact of the changes on the forms of knowledge and professional subjectivities that are produced, as well as the emotional work that is involved.