Tanja Leila Maarit Äärelä

The challenges of parent–teacher collaboration in the light of hospital school pedagogy

ABSTRACT This article provides viewpoints to the development of hospital school pedagogy by analysing challenges of collaboration and encounters between a hospital school teacher and students’ parents. The teacher’s pedagogical work necessitates the ability to work with quite a heterogeneous student group and their parents, and with teachers from students’ own schools. The article is based on experience as a special education teacher at a hospital school and a researcher’s diary of the everyday encounters in the teacher’s work. The observation period formed the data of this study. Findings are presented as the process of collaboration negotiation between the hospital school teacher and the students’ parents. Based on the data and findings, collaboration with students’ own teachers had a significant role. The findings lean on case examples from a hospital school teacher’s everyday work. The research helps to understand the nature of a hospital school teacher’s work and develop hospital school pedagogy.