The main aim of this study was to find out how reading and writing education can work successfully in practice without being exclusive. The teachers preferred heterogenous groups and emphasised the importance of various teaching methods and approaches so as to be able to deal with student diversity. They had a good theoretical foundation and the ability to link-up their theoretical knowledge with what they learned from experience to create action-oriented knowledge. The importance of each student being challenged in the next development zone was stressed. The teachers' positive belief in their students' ability and their commitment to the pedagogical process were other central factors. The successful results of the teachers' work showed the importance of mentorship, co-operation with colleagues and continuous pedagogical discussions, led by a researching teacher, so as to promote the teachers' own reflective ability. This created an inclusive school culture in which all the students felt they were competent, valued and never excluded.

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This is the accepted version of a paper published in Nordic Studies in Education. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.

Studiens syfte är att analysera lärares reflektioner kring design av skrivundervisning under tidiga skolår, med fokus på stödjande multimodal och meningsskapande interaktion. I studien genomfördes fokusgruppsamtal med lärare som undervisar i förskoleklass, lågstadium och med specialpedagogiska insatser vid fyra skolor i två svenska kommuner. Designorienterade teorier har använts för att analysera lärares berättelser om skrivlärande i relation till de förutsättningar som skapas. Designorienterade teorier fokuserar på formgivning av undervisnings-och lärandeprocesser. Med utgångspunkt i designteoretiska resonemang visar resultaten fyra resultatområden när det gäller skrivundervisning och skrivlärande: 1) lärarna menar att de använder multimodala arbetssätt, vilket de särskilt tycker stimulerar pojkars skrivande, 2) de både utgår ifrån och tror på ett kollaborativt skrivlärande som främst syns i det stödjande arbetet, där 3) lärares didaktiska flexibilitet framträder som särskilt viktig. Slutligen synliggörs 4) lärarnas implicita uppfattning om att skrivande är lättare att börja med än läsande. Mer explicit syns detta i lärarnas entusiasm över elevernas skrivande och speciellt pojkarnas. De uttrycker också att skrivandet fungerar stimulerande och upplevs lustfyllt. I studien synliggörs hur kreativt skrivande där eleverna har agentskap kan främja elevernas positiva självbild. Sammanfattningsvis kan man säga att lärarna berättar om en praktik som utgår inte bara från texten eller samtalet som de primära uttrycksformerna för lärande och meningsskapande, utan även från en social literacypraktik där olika resurser används med hög grad av flexibilitet.

The aim of this paper is to compare research criteria for inclusive education in relation to criteria for didactic research. The inclusive researchers that were selected defined inclusive education as removing barriers to social participation and learning for all students. The didactic researchers that we have selected referred to the tradition of successful reading and writing, focused on schools and teaching practices with favourable outcomes. The results indicated that the inclusive education researchers study school mainly from an organisational point of view. In contrast, the didactic researchers focus on a pedagogical approach, that is, on the teachers’ teaching strategies concerning the ways in which each student learns best. Within both fields under study it is considered that in-service training is most effective when it is based on the teachers’ actual working situation and when it emphasizes the importance of cooperative school cultures where the teachers also meet researchers. A reflection is that the inclusive education researchers in the study strive to transfer new knowledge to the teachers, in order to help them broaden their views on reducing social and organisational barriers to inclusion. The reading and writing researchers presented in this study represent a more dialectical process aimed at developing both the teachers’ didactic professionalism, the researchers’ own research questions and, in the end, the students’ learning. Another reflection is that if inclusive education and didactic researchers were to develop collaborative research cultures, this would shorten the way to the common goal: to ensure the participation and learning of all students.