Abstract
The aim of the study is to investigate whether high school teachers are aware of their rights in terms of actions that may be taken under the new Swedish Education Act (2010:800) of 2011. It also aims to examine from where the teachers were given information about theEducation Act (2010:800).
- How conscious are the high school teachers of their rights about effective arrangements that may be taken if a student disrupts the teaching and what the teachers´ supervision duty means?
- Have teachers been subjected to threats and/or violence, and how aware are they ofwhere to turn if they feel offended by a student?
- How have teachers been informed of their rights and action under the Education Actand Do the teachers feel that they had received sufficient knowledge of the SwedishEducation act during their university education?
Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative approach, where a half-structuredinterview has been used as a data collection method. The study involved six high schoolteachers from three different schools, who were contacted via an accessibility- and snowballsampling. A thematic categorization was created from the teachers' responses related to thestudy's theoretical framework and used as analytical tools. The theoretical framework consistsof the Swedish Education Act (2010: 800) Chapter 5. 5-8 §, 17 § and 22 §, Swedish CriminalCode (1962: 700) and the Swedish Work Environment Authority (1993: 2).
Results: Two of the teachers in this study were unaware of their rights regarding the actionsto be taken if a student disrupts the teaching, while four teachers were somewhat aware.Furthermore, the teachers were unfamiliar with what the teachers´ supervision duty meanswhile the supervision duty also seems to complicate the interpretation of the Swedish EducationAct (2010: 800). The teachers are, however, aware of where they can turn if they would beoffended by a student, but they are not as certain about how they would proceed if a violentsituation occur with a student. Teachers have primarily gained their knowledge of the Educationact from the school management, the unions and colleagues, but none of the teachers feel thatthey got sufficient knowledge of the law during their teachers training.
Conclusion: To manage all aspects of the teaching profession, a clear framework is needed toprovide security for both teachers and students. The results showed that the participatingteachers' knowledge of school law (2010: 800) is insufficient, suggesting that training in thearea is lacking in teacher education. The participating teachers have instead gained theirknowledge from their workplace and their own experiences. Five out of six teacher have beenexposed of verbal abuse but only one teacher has been beaten by mistake when separating twostudents in a fight. The participating teachers believe that training in the Swedish EducationAct (2010: 800) can give newly graduated teachers more confidence in their professional role.