Background: Through their leadership, principals have an important, yet typically indirect, effect on pupils' learning. This article focuses attention on principals' influences on teaching and assessment in special education in Sweden: specifically, in special schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities (SID). Whilst SID principals are…

The aim is to describe special education teacher students' learning in the field of tension between informal learning during day-to-day work and formal university education. From the theoretical framework of Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner, we perceive the students as moving on a learning trajectory through a landscape of practice. The students…

The general aim of the present study was to explore how head teachers (N = 683) for older students and head teachers (N = 250) for younger students in Swedish compulsory schools describe handling procedures of special education issues in their schools. Two questionnaire surveys on such issues were conducted during the spring term of 2008 among…

To support the national and international aims of inclusion, "special teacher" training in Sweden was replaced in 1990 by "special educator" training. These special educators would supervise the teachers in their school and would not exclusively teach students. The aim of this study was to investigate what the principals of 14…

This paper looks at trends toward more inclusive education for students with disabilities in Sweden in the context of budgetary cut-backs in school resources. It reports on a project that investigated processes of defining target populations for special education in Swedish schools. Special educators (N=27), classroom teachers (N=35) and…