When Professional Collaboration Cultivates Students' Socio-Academic Communities via Peer Tutoring

When Professional Collaboration Cultivates Students' Socio-Academic Communities via Peer Tutoring
Research Topic/Aim
Over the last 15 years, several advisers have been employed in Danish public schools. For example, inclusion consultants which must take care of students who do not thrive in school. At the same time, special learning programs have been created for students who do not quickly grasp the academic concepts, particularly in reading and mathematics. Unfortunately, the academic and social interventions have not been integrated (Schmidt et al., 2018). However, when examining school's practices, it is characteristic of student's participation that the academic constantly intertwines with social contexts and meanings (Schmidt, 2015).
Research indicates that the current collaboration among professionals often contributes to maintaining existing partial practices, hindering the development of a more inclusive school (Schmidt et al., 2021). The various partial practices in schools are often treated as separate and relatively independent from each other, each with its own logic of practice (e.g., teaching practice, guidance practice, and meeting practice). Furthermore, research shows that when professionals hold meetings to discuss their concerns about students, in 80% of cases, the focus is on the student as the problem, and only in 6% of cases, the issue is attributed to didactics (Schmidt et al., 2021).
This suggest that interventions need to be developed to encourage professionals to collaborate in changing their teaching practices. Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring “SYKL” can be one way to foster professional collaboration, not only in meetings but also didactically in and around the classroom. In Danish, Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring is SYstematiseret KLassekammerathjælp, hence the acronym SYKL.

Theoretical Framework
The starting point is theory of inclusion (Allan, 2008; Booth, 2011), dialogic teaching, and peer tutoring (Alexsander, 2020; Thurston et al., 2020), as well as theory on professional collaboration (Friend, 2007; Hansen, 2019).

Methodological Design
The two-year intervention project involved 75 professionals (teachers, consultants, and leaders) who received training on the didactic approach of SYKL, which is based on same-age Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring. The paper is constructed on the following data: 24 lessons of video observations of SYKL in mathematics and Danish (L1) in 4th grade, 14 interviews with students, teachers, counselors, and school leaders, and four audio recordings of meetings where professionals had a didactic discussion about SYKL.

Expected Conclusions/Findings
SYKL can help bring different professional expertise into play because the intervention focuses on both the academic and social development of students. When professionals systematically observe both academic and social interactions, their meetings can become focused on developing teaching to provide more opportunities for participation for a greater number of students. Simultaneously, counselors and teachers with different expertise can find a common focus, making teaching a shared responsibility.

Relevance to Nordic educational research
A substantial contribution is made to the field of inclusion regarding how professionals in the Nordic school system can collaborate on inclusive initiatives such as Systematized Reciprocal Peer Tutoring (SYKL).