Lärares skyldighet att anmäla : En kvalitativ studie om lärares agerande vid misstanke om barnmisshandel

• Main Authors: Torpman, Alma, Öhrling, Sebastian
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) 2019
• Subjects: Teacher; child abuse; mandatory report; acting space; Social Work; Socialt arbete
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-86141

The aim of this study was to understand how teachers in Sweden act when they suspect child abuse. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers from six different schools teaching at various grades. A qualitative method was applied in order to reach broader answers and enabling the possibility of follow-up questions. The collected data was analyzed with the new institutional theory and the theoretical concepts about street-level bureaucratsand discretion. Earlier studies within the area has been found by using the keywords: teacher, child abuse, report, mandatory report, consequence andneglect. The empirical data resulted in three large categories, which further contained several subcategories explaining why the teachers took action or not when suspecting child abuse. The results indicated that the teachers act in different ways within their discretion, and sometimes against the law. Furthermore, the majority of the teachers have knowledge about the notification requirements according to the social services act (SFS 2001:453), but that some schools use their own policies and guidelines that the teacher choose to apply instead. Concludingly, the current study aligns with the new institutional theory illustrating that the solution for some organizations is to detach practical actions from formal structures and thereby ignoring laws.