Browsing by Author "Ojala, Sonja"

The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of general upper secondary school teaching staff towards support for learning as a part of their job. Furthermore, this study focuses on the professional agency and orientations of the teaching staff in the context of general upper secondary education reform. One of the pivotal changes in the reform is the legal right of students to receive special needs education and other support for learning in accordance with their needs. It is stated in the new core curriculum that special needs education will be provided by a special needs teacher, whereas other support for learning will be implemented by teaching staff as a whole. This study was carried out as a qualitative case study. 19 members of teaching staff in one general upper secondary school participated in the study, including subject teachers, guidance counsellors and a special needs teacher. The data was collected through six focus group interviews and an online survey. Topics covered in the interviews and the survey included providing support for learning, defining one’s role and its boundaries at work as well as values related to work. The data was analysed using content analysis. Based on the results of this study, teaching staff perceives support for learning to be important in general upper secondary education. However, their opportunities to give support in practice are influenced by multiple external and personal factors as well as factors related to the work community and students. Teaching staff finds it challenging to support their students especially due to large group sizes, lack of time, student hesitation to seek and receive support, and the limited skills of subject teachers. The results indicate that strong professional agency is especially practiced by subject teachers in class. On the other hand, as general upper secondary education undergoes several reforms, teaching staff points out that their responsibilities increase while resources are inadequate. In this study, four types of participants’ professional orientations were found regarding their perceived core tasks at work. According to the teaching staff, the main objectives of general upper secondary education are to provide students with extensive general knowledge and skills for the future as well as to support their personal growth.