Auktoritet och ansvar: Lärares fostrans- och omsorgsarbete i ... - DiVA

importance of happiness as a state that ideally should characterise pupils lives, is
related to different attitudes of schooling as a preparation for the future. Three
types of preparation are distinguished: preparation for eternity, preparation for
society and preparation for learning; three types that belong roughly to three
different time periods (pre-modern, modern and late modern society). These
three types of preparation give, respectively, the idea of happiness different
meanings. When schooling is understood as a preparation for learning the tradition
of the postponed happiness becomes challenged. A possible conclusion of
this development is that teachers’ responsibility for the wellbeing of pupils becomes
more present oriented.
Chapter 9 [“Public sphere turned intimate”] analyses the process of making
suffering visible. It is argued that the care of the suffering child historically has
been hampered by the fact that the knowledge of the wellbeing of the child was
restricted by the fact that schools were seldom seen as places for making the
private public. When the social distance decreases, and with the advent of such
things as the “log book” [loggboken], the increased contacts with parents, and
with the practice of mentorship, it is argued that pupils (or parents) telling
teachers about their private problems is made more likely, although this arguably
does not apply to most pupils.
Chapter 10 [“From school hygiene to a pedagogy of crisis”] discusses and
contrasts two ways in which the idea of wellbeing of pupils has been discussed in
the early and late 20 th century respectively. Under the headline of school hygiene,
wellbeing and health was discussed during the first half of the 20 th century. The
analysis is concentrated on the struggle against contagion. The second part of the
chapter is about “crisis pedagogy”, or with another word, crisis management.
Drawing on articles and handbooks in crisis management the aim is to understand
in what ways the crisis pedagogy represents new ways of dealing with the
suffering child. School hygiene and crisis pedagogy are both about wellbeing,
but the first had “sickness” as the fundamental concept, whereas the later has
“sorrow” as its fundamental concept. The former is characterised by a belief in
progress and segregation, whereas the latter is characterised by a belief in inclusion
and close personal relationships.
In Chapter 11 [“Responsibility for the other”] the transformation of the caring
aspects of teaching, discussed in the preceding chapters is discussed from two
perspectives. First the mechanisms that make responsibility for the Other
probable or less probable are discussed. The processes of intimisation, the
present oriented culture (“schoolification”) and the fact that suffering in late
modern societies is seldom viewed as created by impersonal factors (“relationisation”)
are discussed. The conclusion of this is that the suffering child is more
likely to become a problem that the teacher has to handle in late modern
societies. The suffering child is less likely to be made invisible by the social
distance between teachers and pupils, it can not be “cured” by the future, and it
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