This paper aims to explore and develop an understanding of special needs support from the student’s perspective in upper secondary vocational education and training (VET). Research has shown that students in vocational programs are in high need of accommodation and require increased special needs education (SNE), especially in activities and subjects with an academic focus. Recent research reviews focusing on special education show that more inclusive assessment practices are needed (deleted for anonymity) as well as more research in the area of special needs education in vocational education. This qualitative study was inspired by a phenomenological approach interested in understanding social phenomena from the participants’ perspectives and lived experiences. Following this approach, the analysis uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a tool to map and interpret participants’ expressions in their daily context. The empirical material is drawn from seven semi-structured interviews with students in need of special needs support, undertaken in two upper secondary vocational schools in two separate municipalities and regions in Sweden. To analyse and widen the understanding of the informants’ descriptions of their possibilities and hindrances to participate in their educational activities the following theoretical perspectives are used: Klafki’s critical constructive Didaktik, Persson’s categorical and relational perspectives on special education, and Lawys theorized concept of voice. The analysis shows that the students’ experiences of special needs support are ambivalent. The results display not only a division between the teaching of vocational and academic subjects and support in upper secondary VET but the analysis leads to a need for further exploration of SEN in vocational education and the role of didactics that include students’ voices.

Syftet i denna artikel är att utforska och utveckla en förståelse för specialpedagogiskt stöd utifrån yrkesgymnasieelevers eget perspektiv. Forskning har visat att elever i yrkesgymnasiets program är i stort behov av anpassningar och specialpedagogiskt stöd, i synnerhet inom akademiska ämnen. Aktuella forskningsöversikter med fokus på specialundervisning visar på behov av mer inkluderande bedömningspraktiker liksom mer forskning inom området specialpedagogik i yrkesutbildning. Den här artikeln har en fenomenologisk ansats som intresserar sig för sociala fenomen och upplevda erfarenheter från deltagarnas eget perspektiv. Utifrån denna utgångspunkt används en tolkande fenomenologisk analys som redskap för att kartlägga deltagarnas uttryck i deras vardagliga kontext. Det empiriska materialet är baserat på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med elever i behov av särskilt stöd, från två yrkesgymnasieskolor i två olika kommuner och regioner i Sverige. För att kunna analysera och utvidga förståelsen av informanternas beskrivningar av sina möjligheter och hinder att delta i utbildningens aktiviteter, är följande teoretiska perspektiv använda: Klafkis kritiskt konstruktiva didaktik, Perssons kategoriska och relationella perspektiv på specialpedagogik samt Lawys teoretisering av begreppet röst. Analysen visar att elevernas erfarenheter av att vara i behov av specialpedagogiskt stöd är ambivalenta. Resultatet visar inte enbart en skillnad mellan undervisningen och stödet i yrkesämnen och akademiska ämnen i yrkesgymnasiet utan pekar på behov av ytterligare utforskning av specialpedagogiskt stöd inom yrkesgymnasial utbildning och didaktikens roll som inkluderar elevens röst. 

This study explores vocational didactics and embodied knowledge in hairdressing

education by studying how perceptive sensoriality is used by teachers and students in

creating shared understandings of vocational knowledge. Among multiple actions,

touch is distinguished as a central resource in learning the vocation, as it emerges in

interaction between teacher and student related to the ongoing teaching and its

assignment. The data is based on video-recordings displaying how touch is used in

manipulating objects and material, or in assessing qualities and defects. In such

instances, touch becomes a diagnostic criterion (Goodwin, 1997) to investigate how the

material worked with can be evaluated and handled. To bridge the gap between

individual and collective vocational knowledge, metaphors are of use. The results show

two approaches to the teaching of perceptive sensoriality. In order to learn the vocational

subject content the teaching need to provide for and practice the individual’s embodied

sense of touch as well as the vocation’s verbalised collective feel. This is the core of the

didactical challenge.

The aim of this paper and presentation is to make visible and heard students’ in special educational needs (SEN) own perspectives on and experiences of various forms of support in vocational education and training (VET). Research has shown that students studying in vocational programmes were in high need of accommodation and require increased attention, especially in activities and subjects with academic focus (Yngve et al., 2019). Students are rarely informants, even when they are the subject being studied (Keles et al., 2022). However when asked, various experiences of inclusion and exclusion emerges from their narratives (Öhman, 2022b). Recent research reviews focusing on special education show that more inclusive assessment practices are needed (Öhman, 2022a) as well as more research in the area of special needs education (SNE) in vocational education (Björk-Åman & Holmgren, 2021).

This presentation uses the Aristotelian concept of practical wisdom phronesis (Aristotle, 1976) connected to bildung (Klafki, 1998; Tyson, 2019) to discuss and widen the understanding of the informants’ descriptions of their possibilities or hindrances to participate in educational activities. 

The empirical material is drawn from eight semi-structured interviews undertaken in two different vocational schools in two separate municipalities and regions. The qualitative study is inspired by a phenomenological approach taking interest in understanding social phenomena from the participants own perspectives and lived experiences (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2014). In line with this approach the further analysis uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a tool to map and interpret expressions in their context (Beck & Berterö, 2015). 

Overall the informants in the interview-study express satisfaction with the vocational programme they have chosen as it gave possibilities to inclusive support in the practical activities, whereas activities related to more academic achievement required special support and individual accommodations such as special support classes (SSC). A common reason for this exclusive support was failed grades in academic core subjects such as Mathematics, Swedish or English. The students’ experiences of being in need of special support are ambivalent; they blame themselves of being disable while grateful for the support they get, even when excluded

Vad har stödinsatser för betydelse ur elevers perspektiv? Den här artikeln utgår från en intervjustudie med gymnasieelever om deras erfarenheter av särskilt stöd. Delar av det empiriska materialet har analyserats utifrån en narrativ ansats och teoretiska perspektiv kopplade till makt och identitet. Föreställningar om och innebörd av särskilda behov är komplexa och mångdimensionella. Ur analysen av två elevers berättelser framträder relationella aspekter som trygghet och delaktighet som betydelsefulla för eleverna. Analysen ger också en bild av hur särskilda behov och särskilt stöd är inbäddade i olika former för maktstrukturer där erfarenheter av att vara inkluderad eller exkluderad skapar olika identiteter. Vikten av att bemöta varje elev i behov av särskilt stöd som en unik individ är central i berättelserna. En slutsats som kan dras från resultaten är att en pedagogik som både är relationell och kunskapsutvecklande visar sig vara viktigt för elever i behov av särskilt stöd. Det konceptualiseras med det reciproka begreppsparet tillhörighet och tillblivelse, där inkludering förstås som något långt mer än skolplacering.

Upper secondary students’ experiences of special needs support: Narratives of alienation and belonging

What does the provision of special educational needs actually mean to those concerned and how can their narratives be understood within perspectives of power and identity? This article reports an interview-study with upper secondary school students who have special needs. The empirical material is analyzed with a narrative approach and discussed within perspectives related to power and identity. The meanings and conceptualizations of special educational needs are complex and multifaceted. Grasping it from the participants themselves, with their unique experiences of special educational support, is thus a necessary condition. The results show that support demands much more than placement or special educational training. Teaching and learning must be provided with regards to relational aspects such as thrust and security, and accessible to everyone in a variety of local contexts. By exploring students’ accounts of special needs support, this study develops knowledge about special needs and support as intertwined in systems of power. Their experiences of inclusion and exclusion build identities of winners and losers. All in all, the results give insights to the importance of an understanding of treating each student with special needs as an individual subject/person (someone) and not as categorizing him/her as an object/disability (something). A framework of relational, as well as existential pedagogy that creates spaces for senses of belonging, becoming and being, is central with regards to students’ special educational needs. 

Key words: special needs support, narrative, upper secondary school, identity, power.

The interest in this review lies in two research fields: Special Education and Classroom Assessment and explores if and how these fields interrelate. A review of classroom assessment with regards to special educational needs has not yet been published; the knowledge of the impact of assessment in education concerning students in special needs is thus scarce. Therefore, this study aims to contribute with knowledge about how assessment practices can be understood in relation to special educational needs. From a broad overview of present research within the two fields, 17 articles from 2010 to 2020 were selected and analyzed. The focus of these articles is on content that overlaps in both assessment of knowledge and special needs. Four dyadic themes were found showing practices of inclusive assessment in the research: equity & equivalence, inclusion & access, interaction & relation and self-regulation & identity. These themes are considered important strategies in inclusive assessment practices. Intersections between disability, language- and cultural background as well as class, make visible dimensions of marginalization and special needs on various levels of education. These aspects are informative to policy makers, education staff as well as academic researchers. In addition, they can be approached separately or as entangled areas of knowledge.