Flexibility, lack of demands, and a communicative approach. These are concepts and perspectives that recur in our dialogue with the educators in the class at Kroksbäck.

During our first week, we check in with the educators, partly briefly and spontaneously as time allows for them after we have met one of the students, and partly in the classroom during the last half hour of the day when several educators participate and the students are still in the classroom.

I really appreciate your flexibility. That you can come with the students and try something. Try in the corridor, in the room, and different things. But also your approach to the students. Really incredibly responsive and not at all demanding. That you really follow the students in a very nice way. I really appreciate that.

I see that you give space to the students. You provide security in that way. You have not limited them. It was very calm in there. There was no stress.

In the conversation, we all note that there was a lot of laughter in the classroom. The students were really happy. And one pupil who otherwise usually only remains in an activity for less than a minute stayed in the room surprisingly long – a full 20 minutes and then came back again for a shorter while. None of the educators had expected this.

In the conversation with teachers and student assistants, we also get the opportunity to talk about the intentions of the development project since not everyone has been able to attend the preparatory meetings that have been held. This also includes our thoughts about the materials and how we try to use them to create a surface for communication that we do not know in which direction it will take and where there are no given right or wrong. Perspectives on communication and relationship-building are something several of the educators return to.

I think that is a very rewarding approach. There are very few situations that our students encounter where there is no right or wrong. Especially when others come to visit, then you are supposed to sit and watch as an audience or there is going to be face painting. There is almost always a specific task. Communication as an approach is much more rewarding for these students. So that it really becomes on their terms.

That you responded to the students. As soon as they had a small interest, tapped a little or felt in a certain way, you imitated and did that too, but without being very close and “look now I’m doing the same as you”. Just that you are allowed to observe each other. I think that is very good.

We also get the opportunity to talk a bit about how we think when we meet the students and how we try different ways in our attempts to create a relationship. One way can be very attentive and waiting. Another surprising. It can be very different what is right in the moment. There, the educators add about the importance of meeting the students several times.

That is why it is nice that you come several times. Then you can get to know them a bit and see what works. Some are a bit more cautious. Some more explosive. There you get to know each other. So that is why it is very nice that you come so many times.

One pupil did not want to leave the regular classroom, which meant that we instead came in there. Finally, we reflect a bit on how it was for the other students, those who were not given the same directed attention but who instead had been in the room earlier for quite long periods. An educator interprets it as one pupil understanding that the focus was not on them at that moment but that it became another type of social experience and training and that the students reacted differently when the focus was not on them.

After our week at the school, we have much to reflect on. Our thoughts concern both concrete choices in relation to materials and approaches for upcoming occasions as well as questions of a more philosophical and societal nature. How can we understand and define lack of demands in relation to communication? Why are actions and expressions beyond given right and wrong so rare? What constitutes flexibility and how flexible can something be without losing content, form, and intention?

Image: Johan Danielsson