Browsing by Author "Pasanen, Laura"

The aim of this study was to examine what sort of challenges and other matters special class teachers notice in studies of youth in foster care, and how they can support these youth. The number of children and youth in foster care has increased for a long period of time (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, 2020). Comparing to their peers, youth in foster care have lower academic achievement and they struggle more with psychosocial problems (Berlin et al., 2011). These problems have an effect on these youth also later in their life (Brännström et al., 2017). Consequently, it is important to examine what kind of issues these youth struggle with and how special class teachers can meet these issues. The study is qualitative case study and was conducted by interviewing five special class teachers from two special schools in Finland. The interviews were thematic. Qualitive content analysis was used as a method of data analysis. Special class teachers mentioned a great amount of issues that are related to studies of foster youth. Firstly, the teachers brought up problems in multiprofessional cooperation. They mentioned differing practices, distrust, lack of cooperation and insufficient flow of information between professionals. Special class teachers also brought up the challenges these youth have faced in their past; for instance inadequate upbringing. The teachers supported foster youth by collaboration, consistent and individual support and discussion, for instance. They also supported youth by showing that they care and by setting boundaries. Despite the challenges, the special class teachers mentioned positive matters as well, especially when comparing foster youth to other children involved in the child welfare system. For instance, as stated by the special class teachers, youth in foster care received a lot of support from child caring institution. In addition, child caring institutions helped teachers with network cooperation.