I denna essä diskuteras undervisning som begrepp och fenomen, med ett särskilt fokus på fritidshemmet. Utifrån ett handlingsteoretiskt perspektiv riktas analysen mot den konkreta interaktionen mellan pedagog och elev, där kvaliteten på pedagogens handlingar blir konstitutiva för undervisning som fenomen. Intentionen, avsikten att lära eleven något, blir ur detta perspektiv möjlig att observera under dynamiska situationer inom exempelvis fritids-hemmets verksamhet. Detta kan ställas i relation till en konventionell förståelse av undervisning då intentioner och avsikter istället antas vara inbäddade och avgränsade i tid och rum, med rubriker som ”lektion” eller ”undervisningspass”. Det handlingsteoretiska perspektivet föreslås inte ersätta en sådan förståelse, men däremot komplettera den och framför allt bidra till att uppmärksamheten riktas mot dimensioner av verksamheten där kvalitet rimligen kan bedömas.

School-age educare (fritidshem) was included in the Swedish education act in 2010 and received its own section in the national curriculum in 2016. From that point on, teaching in school-age educare was also linked to predefined core contents and abilities that the pupils are supposed to develop. At the same time, the curriculum states that teaching in school-age educare is to be based on “the pupils’ needs, interests and experiences”. In the article, this duality is discussed in relation to empirical findings from school-age educare teachers. The teachers describe situations when they pay attention to pupils’ doing and saying, and how this is transformed into teaching purposes. The findings are related to the concept of “phronesis”, while the teachers’ attention gets a significant meaning through that concept. Moreover, the findings indicate that “episteme knowledge” also needs to be emphasized in this form of student-centered education, as something necessary for school-age educare teachers to know.

Schools in Sweden need to handle an acute lack of teachers. One way to handle this problem is to hire new staff who can work with social and administration tasks, enabling the teachers in school to teach some more classes instead. This study examined two secondary schools in Sweden where this way to solve the problem was tried out. The aim of the study was to highlight possible consequences for teachers’ core practices (teaching), and discuss whether more teaching might involve another sort of teaching. In this analysis, Ryle´s distinction of “achievements” versus “tasks” was being used (Ryle, 1949). Another aim was to highlight possible consequences for teacher-student relationships and possible consequences for the teachers´ working conditions. The empirical base was five focus group interviews with the teachers. The findings indicate that the new work model might turn into a “mechanical teaching”, more of an achievement than a task, in Ryle´s sense. Moreover, while new staff was hired to solve social problems among students, teachers still describe how they handle acute conflicts in the school environment; “because I´m an adult”. Finally, even though the working conditions are still demanding, the clarifying of job boundaries has contributed to less work stress.

The study highlights the extension and scope of teachers’ work. Swedish teachers reflected on this before and after visiting schools in France, where “CPE-staff” alleviate teachers with different tasks. In sum, findings indicate that the extension and scope of teachers’ work can be discussed in terms of what, when and where, but also as already institutionalized or something that reshapes during negotiations on a daily basis. The findings are analyzed by the concepts of “structure” and “communitas” (Turner, 1974, 2008), highlighting how the professional boarders are dependent on patterns of structures and relationships within the school as an organization.