Room for both qualification and inclusion? The meeting between children, pedagogy and spaces in the Danish Primary School

Research topic/Aim: Our research project concerns the work of leisure time pedagogues in the Danish primary school. We focus on the rooms the pedagogues practice in and the pedagogical roles they construct in those rooms. A reform in 2014 invited the pedagogues into a new series of curriculum based school activities, dominated by an official agenda of strengthened qualification and effective learning environments. To a certain extent, this agenda collides with - and often dominates – another important agenda in the Danish Primary School, that of inclusion. In our presentation, we discuss the encounter between these two agendas and through examples from our empirical data, we illustrate how the tension between qualification and inclusion challenges the leisure time pedagogues in new and puzzling ways. Theoretical frameworks: The theoretical framework of our analysis consists of concepts and research concerning the dialectic relation between spaces and processes of pedagogy. The distinction between hard and soft functionalism and the pedagogical coding of rooms inspires our analysis (Kirkeby, Gitz-Johansen & Kampmann 2005). Hereto, we draw on theoretical concepts from Gert Biesta, Iram Khawaja & Hanne Knudsen and Michel Foucualt, when we analyze the encounter between qualification and inclusion, and the pedagogy that emerges from this meeting (Foucault, 2002; Biesta, 2010, 2011, 2015; Khawaja & Knudsen, 2015). Methodology/research design: Our empirical material consists of different data types from two Danish primary schools: Ethnographic participant observations accompanied by qualitative semi-structured focus group interviews and diary reflections from the informants (Hastrup, 2010; Kristiansen & Krogstrup, 1999; Spradley, 1979, 1980; Kvale 1997; Halkier 2002). Expected conclusions/Findings: Our empirically driven analysis on the encounter between children, spaces and pedagogy illustrates that leisure time pedagogues in the Danish Primary School navigate in a complex and paradoxical sphere of rooms and roles during their working day. Different spaces and agendas construct different possibilities, when the pedagogues handle the balance between qualification and inclusion. In our research, three pedagogical roles stood out, when we began interpreting the data; respectively, the pedagogues act as 1) Classroom Leaders, 2) Counter Bodyguards and 3) Randomly Intervening Caregivers. Each role has its own practical approach, pedagogical priority and connection to specific rooms in the school setting, all of which we discuss in relation to the two contradicting agendas qualification and inclusion. Essentially our data implies that the agenda of qualification dominates the agenda of inclusion, which raises important questions regarding learning and education in our contemporary society. Relevance to Nordic Educational Research: Our research illustrates how the work of Danish leisure time pedagogues have changed after the reform in 2014, and what effects the tension between qualification and inclusion have for future understandings of school- and leisure time pedagogy