Documentation for students in residential care: network of relations of human and non-human actants

Swedish and international research points to serious problems for the education of students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in the care of social welfare, for example, in residential care. The aim of this article is to elucidate how documentation, care plans (CPs) and individual educational plans (IEPs) outline the educational prospects for SEBD students in residential care. A more specific aim is to study how the form or template partakes in the production of educational trajectories. Using post-structural theory and the concepts of actor-network theory, this paper highlights the forms or templates as agentive forces in a network with students, parents, teachers and social workers. Documentation reveals few expectations that these teenagers can become capable learners and almost all of the subjects have been given a reduced curriculum. The lack of headings such as ‘Student's or parents’ opinion’ or ‘School subjects’ can be understood as indications that these topics are considered to be of less importance. Individual differences between students disappear when the electronic document enables the use of the exact same phrases and words to describe different students. These results, along with previous research, point to an immediate need to discuss both the form and content of documentation in educational practice and to consider what, for what reason and for whom to document.