Enacting the role of special needs educator – six Swedish case studies

With the increasing focus on inclusion, special needs educators (SNEs) are now expected to share responsibility for pupils with teacher colleagues and to lead school development, but it is a challenge to enact this role in schools. The aim of the study was to explore how professional roles of Swedish SNEs are enacted in local school contexts. From a survey of SNEs in 10 Swedish municipalities, six participants whose work tasks were expected to correspond to the degree ordinances for their university training were chosen. The participants were followed at work, and data were collected through observation of the participants at work, participants’ diaries and interviews with the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals. The analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, based on the researchers’ observations of the participants at work, categories of SNEs’ tasks were discerned, and the amount of time devoted to those categories of tasks was summarised. Second, case study narratives of the SNEs’ work were constructed to describe how the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals view the SNE role and to describe how the work is enacted in various school contexts. The results revealed seven categories of work tasks practised to varying degrees by the six SNEs. The case study narratives exposed large variation in how the SNEs conceptualised their role and how it evolved in relation to local school contexts. The results of the study are discussed with regard to the role of the SNE in relation to policies of inclusion.     

Discovering Expert Perspectives on Dispositions and Remediation: A Qualitative Study

The authors used a qualitative approach to discover the perceptions of 19 experts on dispositions and remediation for counseling students. Analysis revealed 4 dispositional domains related to context, severity, amenability to change, and cultural sensitivity. Counselor educators should consider dispositions at admission and examine their program’s ability to remediate severe tenacious dispositions.     

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

Make the Stillborn Baby and the Loss Real for the Siblings: Parents’ Advice on How the Siblings of a Stillborn Baby Can Be Supported

This study aimed to investigate parents’ advice to other parents on the basis of their own experiences of siblings’ taking leave of a stillborn sister or brother. The study was a Web questionnaire study of 411 parents. The thematic content analysis resulted in two categories: “Make the stillborn baby and the loss real for the siblings” and “Take the siblings’ resources and prerequisites into account.” Parents’ advised that siblings should see and hold the stillborn baby and, thus, be invited and included into the leave-taking process with respect to the siblings’ feelings, resources, and prerequisites. Based on these findings, professional caregivers can usefully be proactive in their approach to facilitate and encourage the involvement of siblings.     

Peer-reading racetracks for word reading of low-achieving graduating students with learning disabilities and behavioural problems

The number of students with reading difficulties is increasing and reading motivation is decreasing. Although serious reading problems can still persist during secondary education, most reading instruction happens in primary schools. In particular, students with learning disabilities and externalising behavioural problems are confronted with hurdles in reading literacy that need to be overcome. For this reason, this study focused on a simple reading intervention to promote sight vocabulary in 10th grade readers with learning disabilities and behavioural problems. A peer-tutored motivational reading racetrack intervention was implemented three times a week over a five-week period through a multiple baseline design across participants in three small groups. The results indicate that the combined intervention is an appropriate method to help students, even those in a graduating class, to improve their sight words in a short period of time, and thus provide them with important reading skills.     

Theory of mind in children with severe speech and physical impairment (SSPI): a longitudinal study

Six children with cerebral palsy and severe speech impairment took part in a two‐phase longitudinal study of development of social cognition. The children ranged in age from 5 to 7 years old at data collection time 1 and from nine to 11 years old at data collection time 2. Using a model of normal development of Theory of Mind (ToM) suggested by Gopnik and Slaughter (1991), the children were tested on a number of tasks requiring (ToM). The findings suggest that the children with speech impairment follow a normal pattern of development, but with a severe delay compared with children without disability. The results are discussed in relation to problems in early social and communicative experience for the group of children with cerebral palsy and severe speech impairment.     

Professionalism,governance and inclusive education – A total population study of Swedish special needs educators

ABSTRACT

Prior research shows that special needs educators (SNEs) have had problems defining their occupational roles and jurisdiction, particularly regarding inclusive education. There are two occupational groups of SNEs in Sweden, namely special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) and special education teachers. In this paper, we use the collective name SNEs to refer to both groups. Here, results from a total population study of Swedish SNEs are presented (N?=?3367, response rate 75%). The aim is to explore differences in SNEs’ interpretation of school difficulties and if these differences are influenced by SNEs’ employment in different parts of the school organisation. Statistical cluster-analysis was used to categorise SNEs into five distinct groups based on how they view the problems of pupils in school difficulties. Key concepts employed in the analysis are, primarily organisational vs occupational governance in relation to professional jurisdiction. Findings suggest that SNEs are less unanimous in their views of school problems, than prior research indicates. The variance is partly due to where they work in the school organisation, but we also find indications that different groups of SNEs experience different forms of governance with regard to their professionalism. The results are important due to the scope of the data and method of analysis as well as the illustrated variance of professional values and situations of SNEs and the potential consequences for the development of inclusive education.     

A Conceptual Approach to Teaching Mathematics to Students With Intellectual Disability

Swedish compulsory school for students with intellectual disability (ID) has been criticized for focusing on care and not presenting the students with enough knowledge-related challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a conceptually-based mathematics curriculum can be interpreted and constructed for students with ID. A total of 18 mathematics lessons in 6 classes for students with ID were filmed, and the teachers were interviewed in connection with the lessons. A qualitative content analysis approach was used to identify aspects of mathematical competency content and to analyze the teaching. Three major groups of teaching strategies are identified: pedagogical mathematics activities, focusing on students’ perceptions of mathematical content, and encouraging dialogue between students.