The overall purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how the course "Professional Conversation" can contribute to developing preservice specialist teachers in mathematics, `reading and writing´ and intellectual disability, relating to their relational competence to colleagues. In this study, the concept of relational competence is used to define teachers’ ability to build positive relationships with colleagues during professional conversations and is inspired by Aspelin (2018) and Skibsted and Matthiesen (2016). From a relational perspective, the learning is not in the individual or in the collective, the learning instead appears in the gap. The gap should not be conquered, since it is in the gap the learning interaction appears (Biesta, 2004).

Data have been collected on two occasions, autumn 2019 with 47 students and autumn 2020 with 15 students. The data collections involved a qualitative questionnaire study before and after the 10-week course. At the end of the course, the students’ reflected on their competence as a professional oral conversation leader in a report, which also was collected. Apelin’s and Jonsson’s (2019) Relational Competence Model (RCM), will be used as an analysis tool, and it divides relational competence into three sub-competencies: communication, differentiation, and socioemotional. During Spring 2021 the data will be analyzed.

Aspelin, J. (2018). Lärares relationskompetens. Vad är det? Hur kan den utvecklas? Stockholm: Liber förlag.

Aspelin, J., & Jonsson, A. (2019). Relational competence in teacher education. Concept analysis and report from a pilot study. Teacher Development, 23(2), 264-283.

Biesta, G. (2004). " Mind the Gap!" Communication and the Educational Relation. Counterpoints, 259, 11-22.

Skibsted, E., & Matthiesen, N. (Eds.) (2016). Relationskompetencer i laereruddannelse og skole. [Relational competence in teacher education and school; in Danish]. Fredrikshavn: Dafolo.