Students who regularly cause trouble in school, how can they learn anything? That is what we asked ourselves after having visited a special school for “troublesome students” (in Swedish resursskola). Our main purpose has been to find out how these students have experienced the help they have been given in those schools.

We have interviewed students, parents and a social worker in order to find out if the alternative pedagogical methods used by those schools give the students better opportunities to perform their schoolwork. The interviews have been made two or three years after the end of their studies in compulsory school (grade 9). We have used a qualitative method with semi structured interviews and also an evaluation model. The students have negative experiences of the years they spent in ordinary schools but in this special environment they have managed to finish their studies and have even become qualified to continue their studies in upper secondary school. The relationship between teachers, students and parents was good. Cooperation is of vital importance for these students. Our knowledge about their problems will certainly be useful in our future social work.