Several Norwegian studies show that the number of youths with suicidal thoughts is increasing, and that there has been an increase of 28 percent in referrals to treatment for psychological health problems (Helsedirektoratet, 2022). To meet these challenges, dialogue and relationship building are seen as vital (Spurkeland, 2011).

The approaches and techniques used in communication are important when it comes to dialogues with vulnerable students and their families. The quality of such dialogue is to a large extent dependent on the teachers’ ability to ask questions, listen actively and to use other communication methods to build and nourish crucial relationships (Spurkeland, 2011). Indeed, it is widely accepted that relational competency an important factor that contributing to learning in school, and that communication is one of the key competencies of social and relational competency.  

Teacher education in Norway consists of both lectures on campus and student teaching in primary and secondary schools. All teacher education is carried out in 5-year programs resulting in a master’s degree. Mentor teachers at schools are considered an important part of teacher education, as they provide supervision during the student teaching, and the students must pass both practice periods at schools and the exams on campus to become teachers.

Some schools have applied to become teacher training schools, which means that all the teachers at these schools become mentor teachers and supervisors for student teachers during their final student teaching practice. Regulations Relating to the Framework Plan for Primary and Lower Secondary Teacher Education for grades 1-7 and grades 5-10 require that mentor teachers have at least 15 (ECTS) credits in the field of guidance and supervision (Bjerkholt, 2017). This is a quality assurance to ensure that students receive professional supervision. Supervision- competency is referred to as professional skills in teaching, observation, methods, and analytical competency while also including certain personal prerequisites (Mathisen & Høigaard, 2021).

The University of Agder offers courses in mentoring to all mentor teachers on teacher training schools that receive student teachers. The education comprises three semesters. The second semester focuses on methods, strategies, and structures in communication. More specific: question types, body language, listening, strategies that provide progression in supervision, reflection, paraphrasing, interruption, and feedback.  All education takes place in the teacher training schools, not on the university campus.

A large part of teachers’ work is communication within the school, and with parents or guardians and external collaboration partners. Despite the importance of this topic, there is little focus on this during the lectures on campus. Rather this is knowledge the students acquire during school practice. Subsequently, the teachers are dependent on learning how to interact and communicate with both children, youths, parents/- guardians and other collaborators at different schools during their teacher education. The students are, so to speak, at the mercy of each mentor teacher’s skills.

The aim of this study is to gain insight into whether education for mentor teachers in guidance and supervision can affect crucial communication with vulnerable students, their families, and other collaborators. The diversity of pupils in school will be taken into consideration with respect to which students might be considered vulnerable at any given point in time.

Our research question is: How can education in supervision and guidance theory, methods and strategies strengthen the mentor teachers’ communication skills when interacting with vulnerable students and their parents/ legal guardians?

We have a dual role as both educators and researchers. Consequently, we will also observe as we instruct and follow the informants in the interventions and during ordinary lectures. Our study is hermeneutic in the sense that we aim to understand thoughts and actions between people (Kovac, 2023). We will engage in two interventions at a secondary school during the spring 2023 semester in addition to reflection notes and questionnaires. We will observe as we teach the mentor course, and as we implement the interventions. There will be an explicit focus on the link between the different methodological approaches and emphasis on practical approaches to research problems (Denscombe, 2010). There are different views regarding what the perfect number of research participants should be. Postholm (2020) building on Polkinghorne (1989) suggests 5-25 participants, whereas Dukes (1984) suggests 3-10 participants. In our study, there are 6 teachers with different important functional positions who are participating. In January, prior to the interventions, each teacher wrote a reflection note. It contained three different questions about: (1) communication with vulnerable children (2) teachers’ communication with parents/guardians of vulnerable children (3) teachers’ communication with professional collaborators in the school system regarding vulnerable children. Each of the informants also received a questionnaire with fourteen open questions to reflect on their communication skills. The main emphasis of the questionnaire was how they use varied techniques related to communication skills. After two interventions with focus on theory and practice, the teachers will be asked to write a reflection note and complete the same structured questionnaire as they did before the semester started. According to Engeström (2007), formative interventions need to be understood as formations of critical design agency among researchers, teachers, and students. What is initially presented as a problem or a task is interpreted and turned into a meaningful challenge during the intervention (Postholm, 2020). Denscombe, (2010) refers to this process as triangulation (between-methods) to view things from more than one perspective. Analysis of the findings before and after the interventions, will provide varied information to investigate whether the teachers experienced improvement in communications skills. The material will be analyzed in three steps. Firstly, we will gain an overview. Secondly, we will systematize the content using research questions while highlighting the most relevant and interesting information. Finally, we will analyze the findings in relation to communication and dialogue theories. We are currently in the process of collecting data.

This project considers the education of mentor teachers in teacher training schools and the meaning and relevance of the knowledge they gain from the interventions. The teachers in this study will be trained in different communication skills and will help us to understand to what extent this knowledge is important when it comes to communicating with vulnerable youths, parents/ guardians, and collaborators. An additional goal of the study is to uncover the degree to which a “communication manual” might contribute to preparing school mentors, as the project is rooted in an explicit investment in the school’s municipality. The insight from the study may further achieve, in a broader sense, an increased capacity for including teacher education to see the need for including these communication skills in the educational programs provided both at campus and in the teacher training schools.

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