Ulf Jederlund
About me
Ulf mainly teaches and supervises in the Special Pedagogue Programme, and in external school development projects in collaboration with SNAE (the Swedish National Agency of Education / Skolverket), other academic institutions and school principal organizations, nationwide.
Ulf's dissertation "Trustful Relationships and School Development" (2021) is about school development in teacher teams in the school and their collaboration around and with students who challenge more in learning. Many of these students fail in school, not least when the staff lacks collective preconditions and tools to be able to respond to and teach them well. The research project studies a relational school development initiative where teacher teams have received competence development and group counselling aiming to develop common inclusive visions, knowledge and working methods. The effort aimed to develop trustful teacher-student relationships and to involve students in mutual dialogues about improving teaching. The school development processes are studied in a mixed design, with data from the schools' students and from participating school leaders, teachers and group counsellors.
Three results of the thesis reveal: i) organisational and relational preconditions at the system-, school- and teacher group level define which relational school development efforts can be carried out. Teachers need to feel trust in school development processes in order to become involved and be open with own challenges and to try out real changes in practice together with colleagues and students. ii) students’ perceptions of teacher-student relationship quality (TSR) and students’ self-efficacy within different domains of schooling (SSE) are confirmed as inter-correlated relational school factors and seem to be appropriate for use in longitudinal follow-up of teachers’ relational school development efforts; iii) collective relational competence of teachers may develop through an increased joint awareness of how both implicit and explicit aspects of communication affect the teacher-student relationship continuously.
My research interests today lead back to my own professional background, as earlier a music educator, music therapist and psychotherapist, and in later decades school supervisor, school development manager and consultant in preschools and schools and within education organisations. Relationships and interplay at all levels within education is my main interest. With a focus on expanding participation and learning for all children and students.