The aim of this paper is to enhance understanding of the contradictions that arise in the drive to improve teaching practices among pupils with special educational needs (SENs). A questionnaire was administrated to 167 classroom teachers, subject teachers, special education teachers and teaching assistants in Finland. The analysis, based on…

The purpose of this research was to study the content of the work of two special education professions in Sweden, special teachers and special pedagogues. In addition, we compare their work to the work of Finnish special teachers. The Swedish participants were 74 special educators: 27 special teachers and 47 special pedagogues. The Finnish data…

In this article, a qualitative study about teachers' thoughts on consultation between special teachers and class teachers is reported. The aim of the study was to deepen the knowledge about how consultation in special educational contexts can be understood and developed based on the descriptions of special teachers and class teachers on this…

In 2011, there was a legislative reform regarding educational support in Finland, with a focus on early identification, differentiation and flexible arrangement of support using a multi-professional approach, the three-tier support model. The main aim of this study was to investigate what educational support practices are used with low-performing…

This article describes various views of special teacher students towards inclusion. In order to examine these, we analysed a series of statements made by students in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The specific aims were to see how these views can be seen as supportive or challenging for inclusion in schools. A questionnaire with one closed question…

In this follow-up study, development of co-teaching was studied in four different schools in Helsinki, Finland. Teachers, altogether 54, 51 and 26, respectively, responded to an electronic questionnaire three times during one year. The attitudes towards co-teaching were positive although the frequency of co-teaching remained low. Co-teaching was…

Background: Studies have reported higher levels of absenteeism due to illness among special education teachers compared to other teachers, but it is not known which factors might contribute to this difference. We examined whether health, health behaviors, and exposure to violence at work differed between special education and general education…

Recent studies have suggested that the professional training received by general educators does not adequately prepare them to properly implement inclusion-based practices. The idea of inclusion in practice has not significantly changed the situation of teaching pupils with special educational needs (SENs) in mainstream classes. This study's…

This case study analyzed a special education (SE) teacher's activity within his workplace community and external professional network in a Finnish special education context. The nature of the SE teacher's networks and his networking role were examined using an interview and a questionnaire, completed by the teachers working in the community…

This article explores the networking roles and practices of special educators with the methods of social network analysis. This multiple case study included three special educators in a Finnish part-time special education context. The results revealed that although the special educators had central positions in the formal teacher communities as…

Co-teaching--or the use of more than one teacher in a classroom--has been commonly recommended as a means to promote inclusive education. The aim of the present study was to survey the actual frequency of co-teaching among different teacher categories in the comprehensive school level in one Finnish city. The data were collected through a…

This study concentrates on the work of special education teachers in mainstream education in Finland, where these professionals work with children from various classes, usually in a separate room. The research reported in this article by Marjatta Takala of the University of Helsinki, Raija Pirttimaa of the University of Oulu and Minna Tormanen,…