I detta kapitel diskuterar vi kunskaper och kunskapande i förhållande till individ och grupp. Vilka föreskrifter finns i styrdokumenten? Vi dröjer oss också kvar vid hur läraren, i sin undervisning, kan främja elevernas kunskapande? Hur möter läraren de enskilda eleverna och hur kan läraren utnyttja gruppdynamiken? Och, inte minst viktigt, hur kan läraren skapa trygga grupper där varje elev får lära och utvecklas harmoniskt och där ingen blir utanför och tappar landfästet? Slutligen knyter vi ihop detta genom att belysa undervisningen i lärarutbildningen – hur kan studenterna hitta sina segelleder och ankarplatser i fritidshemmet, skolan och förskolan?

In the symposium I want to discuss what students with severe reading and writing problems or dyslexia tell about what help and support they want from their teachers.

The theoretical framework of the study is life world phenomenology, especially focussing on Merleau-Ponty's body concept, the lived body (1962, 1999). Data were produced in recurrent conversations with the nine participants in the study during one academic year. Analysis was carried through hermeneutically.

The results indicate that crucial aspects for those who struggle with reading and writing are that the teacher provides them with time, space and necessary tools for learning. Most important is that the teacher recognizes their striving and supports their experience of I can. To be able to overcome one's literacy difficulties thus appears to be an existential matter.

Since reading, writing, and literacy are of great importance in all educational settings today, as well as at work and for life in society, this study is relevant not only in the Nordic countries but around the world.

Reading and writing have been investigated from different perspectives. Depending on the perspective adopted, some aspects of the phenomena have become visible, while others have been ignored. One of these seldom highlighted aspects is the lived body, learning to read and write. In this article, I explore the phenomenological aspects of reading and writing. What do we see when we consider our embodied existence? Merleau-Ponty believes that man is an indivisible whole; the mind can neither be understood without the body, nor the body without the mind. What then are the consequences for our understanding of reading and writing when, in addition to aspects of skill, metacognition and learning in practice, account is also taken of the fact that we are lived bodies, situated in time and space? The findings from my doctorial thesis (Nielsen, 2005) serve to illustrate the discussion. Narratives from people with reading and writing difficulties show that the encounters with sign, words and text are a bodily encounter, as well as a mental one, facilitated by means of perception and motor activity. They also show that own time and personal space are important aspects of learning to read and write.