School-integrated therapies and inclusive education: the tension between institutionally defined responsibility and subjective problem experience and efficacy experience with consequences for interventions

• Published in: Forum, qualitative social research Vol. 16; no. 3
• Main Author: Vetter, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Classrooms; Hermeneutics; Interviews; Pedagogy; Social integration; Special education; Switzerland
• ISSN: 1438-5627; 1438-5627

In Switzerland, psychomotor therapists are integrated into special education classrooms. However, many feel insecure regarding their effectiveness with students in certain situations. Consequently, they question their therapeutic approaches and value systems, that in principle are believed to be appropriate, but have little compatibility with the educational system. These concerns about their therapeutic work lead many psychomotor therapists to question if the structures and processes in the school system are restrictive and highly standardized. This supports the hypothesis that a close regulation of professional practitioners through administrative requirements under certain conditions can lead to the disappearance of the specific nature of a profession and de-professionalization over time. In the research project 'Subjective Theories of Psychomotor Therapists,' from which the data and analysis reported in this paper originated, the following themes guided the research: the competence construct, the effectiveness-experience, and dealing with challenges. Using low structured guided interviews with psychomotor therapists in German-speaking Switzerland it was possible to illustrate that their professional understanding moves in a conflict: There is a defined task from those responsible for education on the one hand, and there is a significantly deviating constructed competence experience on the other. In the article, the methodology of reconstruction in the elaboration of the findings from the transcribed material is described, using an integrative, hermeneutic analysis (Kruse, 2014). Results are presented for discussion and the steps of analysis are shown.