The aim of this study is to investigate how pedagogues through their language construct the concept of children in need of special support who often end up in conflicts. In this context the influence of two discourses from the scientific field of special pedagogy are analyzed: the psycho-developmental- and the relational discourse. The analysis also seeks to find whether pedagogues in this frame of discussion maintain or challenge traditional power relations between them and these children.

The following questions are used to receive answers to the aim mentioned above: “How do the pedagogues describe the difficulties that the children exhibit in conflict situations?”, “What kind of support do the pedagogues consider the children to be in need of in their work with conflict management?” and “What are the consequences of the subject positions assigned to the children by the pedagogues?”

The study is based on qualitative interviews with seven pedagogues from two different sections at the same preschool. In the analysis theoretical framework from social constructionism and, mainly, critical discourse analysis has been used. The choice to use critical discourse analysis also provided the study with a method, including linguistic features, in how to analyze the data.

The key findings of this study showed that the pedagogues’ way of constructing the concept of children in need of special support, who often end up in conflict, differed depending on which discourse had the most influence in the pedagogues’ way of using their language. The psychodevelopmental discourse assigned the children with a subject position which did not provide them with power and impact in conflict situations. On the other hand, this proved to be the case when the words of the pedagogues were affected by the relational discourse. With impact of the relational discourse, in their way of using language, the pedagogues were also able to change traditional power relations between them and these children.