Search

Sweden is internationally regarded as an inclusive educational system. This study explores how teacher education programmes in Sweden have been organised as regards inclusive education (IE). Specifically, the study examines how teacher candidates and staff perceive teacher pre-service training for IE in terms of its curriculum and pedagogical practices towards students. The question was explored through a case-study of a large, well-respected university in Sweden, using semi-structured interviews and group-discussions with teacher candidates and staff members, and document analyses. The study revealed that the university makes several purposeful efforts to prepare its teacher candidates to practise IE, e.g. all teacher education programmes have a specific course on inclusion, while this content is also infused into several other courses. Nonetheless, the study also demonstrates that teacher candidates lack a deeper understanding of relationship between special education and inclusion, which can probably be attributed to the wider socio-political context dominated by the special education narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students with disabilities face obstacles in their encounters with higher education. The aim of this study is to investigate how the institutional context shapes students’ experiences of unequal opportunities in higher education. In comparing disabled students’ experiences from universities in Sweden, the Czech Republic, and the United States, the study makes visible the kind of experiences that students share and how experiences differ between these countries within the global context of higher education. The study has shown that students’ possibilities for equal participation are shaped by the institutional context that is based on medical diagnosis and compensation for an inaccessible education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past two decades there have been major developments in deaf education in many countries. Medical and technical advances have made it possible for more deaf children to hear and speak successfully. Most deaf pupils learn in ordinary classes in mainstream schools. In this article we explore patterns of achievements of deaf pupils to see if these reforms had improved attainment outcomes. International surveys such as PISA do not include deaf pupils. This article describes two independent large-scale surveys about deaf pupils in Sweden and Scotland. The similar results from both countries show that deaf children, after two decades of social reform and technical advances, still lag behind their hearing peers. The results also show how large-scale surveys can contribute to a greater understanding of educational outcomes in a small, vulnerable group and make it possible to continue to reform the field to narrow the achievement gap further. The results further suggest that differing methods in two contrasting educational contexts can lead to some similar results and point to the need for different support to children with hearing loss and language disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational leaders have a comprehensive responsibility for how preschools and schools work with children in need of special educational support. The aim of this research is to study how educational leaders (a) explain why children have problems in schools, (b) consider how preschools/schools should help children in need of special support and (c) the role they believe that Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) should have in such work. Educational leaders (N =45) working in preschools and regular compulsory schools in a Swedish municipality responded (100%) to a questionnaire. According to the results of this study, this group seems to view difficulties in schools as being caused primarily by individual shortcomings. Educational leaders often advocate solutions that are closely linked to the work of special educators. The educational leaders believe SENCOs should work with supervising staff and focus on documentation and evaluations. Preschool leaders attribute children's need of special support to teachers more often than their colleagues in compulsory schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a study on inclusive education in Sweden looking at the link between societal values and classroom practices in early childhood special education systems. The author discovered that policy and practice are not always in alignment for a multitude of reasons. Constraints of fiscal shortages, school orientation towards testing, cross-school comparisons and localized school control are some of the reasons offered for imperfect enactment of policy.