Abstract

In recent years, our research group at the University of Oulu has developed, in a dialogue with German-Scandinavian critical psychology, a model of empirical research that strives to understand the changing participation of individuals in maintaining and changing societally produced conditions and meaning structures. In this article, I present an empirical analysis from a research project where subject-scientific ideas have been used and developed in relation to pupil welfare services in Northern Finland. I begin with a short description of the project where professionals in pupil welfare services discussed the current challenges in their everyday work in supervised peer groups and describe the data that was created during the project. Next, I describe how personal participation is identified and further analysed in relation to sociological research on the development of mental health work in Finland. In the discussion, I suggest that the knowledge created in this kind of analysis can be used in developing structures of pupil welfare services and in supporting professional growth.