The overall aim of the ongoing study is to contribute to increased knowledge and understanding of leadership in music education by exploring some cases in Sweden and France.

In this study, the umbrella concept of Collaborative professionalism (Hahn et al., 2024; Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018) is adopted as a theoretical lens for analysing how leadership in music education is performed and constructed in different contexts with a variety of connections and partners, related to creating collaboration as a way to enhance educational quality, democratic decision-making and collective responsibility. In these collaborative processes, young voices are also to be heard.

The study has a qualitative design with a phenomenological approach based on the participants' experiences and perceptions (Georgi & Georgi, 2003) in the format of case studies (Merriam, 1998), one in Sweden and three in France. Data was constructed during 2023 and 2025 and consists of observations of music education lessons and semistructured interviews with different persons in leadership contexts at various levels— nine in Sweden and six in France.

With France as one of the two research sites, it broadens the findings and discussion of the role of leadership in music education with cases from another European country. Collaborative professionalism takes various forms depending on its contextual framing. Still, there are similarities between the two countries, such as well-established collaborations between renowned music institutions and education.

The situation of music schools in Sweden is at stake as the state support has decreased considerably, which means fewer children and young people can attend. On the other hand extracurricular music education can be seen as a universal human right: ”freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts /…/ (United Nations, 2015, art 27 par 1) as well as according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child : “/…/ encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity”(Unicef, 1989/90).

With this backdrop, the multidimensional forms of leadership in the studied cases shed new light on these issues. The researched variety of cases of collaborative professionalism is in line with the current demand for creative and holistic leadership for the music and culture schools (Lindgren & Söderman, 2024).

The research topic concerns specific conditions and forms of leadership from the perspective of Swedish folk high school[1] principals. It is part of a larger project that also includes cultural school leaders with the same aim to explore leadership.

The theoretical framework used in this study is discourse theory (Potter, 1996) for survey data and the narrative approach for interview data (Polkinghorne, 1995; Elliott, 2005). The research design includes semi-structured web surveys and group interviews via Zoom conducted in 2023-24. Out of 156 folk high school principals, 65 responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 41.67 percent. Seven of these participated in group interviews, totaling 1,5 hours split into two groups. The survey questions were both multiple-choice and open-ended, for example: “most important mission of the folk high school,” “what potential opportunities and obstacles do you experience in your job?” or “what support do you have?” The group interview questions delved deeper into the survey questions, such as: “what are  [1]  also called adult education college 

the conditions for leading the folk high school? " “how much control can the folk high school tolerate?” and “what is the most important future issue?”

Some findings from the survey show, for example, that participants as a person had the largest number of responses on the question about the most important mission with open-ended answers highlighting subthemes like “grow as a person,” “influence one’s life situation and contribute to social development,” and “understand one’s abilities and resources.” The next most important mission was education, which included aspects like “a second chance” and “giving people a different school form that suits them better.” Democracy is the third most important mission according to the respondents, with subthemes such as: "to create meetings and educate for strengthened democracy based on local conditions" 

"equality, contributing to solutions to common societal challenges" or “the pedagogical work is democracy work in sharing of experiences and transformation."

A preliminary conclusion is emerging of a leadership that does not primarily see the folk high school as an institution qualifying its participants for a profession but seeing it as a place with an education and pedagogy that have existential concerns (Biesta, 2020; Reindal, 2020), and where participants can develop in a life perspective. It requires freedom and trust from those involved to lead and create conditions to grow as a subject in a time where control and budget cuts affect the folk high school’s possibilities of continuity and even survival.

The relevance to Nordic educational research is considered high since the folk high school is a specific school form with its origins in the Nordic countries. There is a lack of comprehensive research specifically focused on the leadership of folk high schools, at the same time, the situation of the school form is being questioned, and the schools are losing financial support despite being sought for and needed as an alternative form of education. Empirical research is more than ever of importance.

The research topic concerns specific conditions and forms of leadership from the perspective of Swedish culture school leaders. It is part of a larger project that also includes folk high school principals with the same aim to explore leadership.

The theoretical framework used in this study is discourse theory (Wetherell & Potter, 1992; Billig, 1988, 2005) for survey data and the narrative approach for interview data (Polkinghorne, 1995; Elliott, 2005).The research design includes semi-structured web surveys and group interviews via Zoom conducted in 2023-24. Of 277 culture school leaders, 114 responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 41.16 percent. Eight of these participated in group interviews, totaling 1,5 hours, split into three groups. The survey questions were both multiple-choice and open-ended, for example: “Most important mission of the culture school,” “What potential opportunities and obstacles do you experience in your job?” or “What support do you have?” The group interviewquestions delved deeper into the survey questions, such as: “What are the conditions for leading the culture school?”, “How much control can the culture school tolerate?” and “What is the most important future issue?”Interview data has not yet been analyzed, while survey data has been partially analyzed. Through a discursively oriented analysis (Wetherell & Potter, 1992) guided by the concepts of interpretive repertoires and Billig's (1988, 2005) ideological dilemmas, culture school leaders´ discursive constructions of the mission of culture school, management practice, and future issues have been crystallized, as have the ideological dilemmas that these constructions point to.

A preliminary conclusion highlights the ideological dilemmas that emerge in the analysis. One such dilemma can be formulated as ‘culture school in a field of tension between civic education versus education with predetermined goals.’ Another dilemma can be described as ‘culture school in a field of tension between art and cultural education versus social meeting place’, and yet another as ‘culture school in a field of tension between locally free versus nationally conditional’.

These dilemmas might, reversed, also have something to say about what Swedish culture school is perceived as, why it exists, and what lies ahead from the perspective of culture school leaders.

The relevance for Nordic educational research is considered high because the Swedish culture school is a special form of school with more or less similar examples in the other Nordic countries. While the importance of culture school leaders for how the heritage of the culture school should be translated into practical activities is emphasized (Lindgren & Söderman, 2024), there is a lack of comprehensive research on that topic. For that reason, empirical research is of importance.

Studien utforskar särskilda villkor och former för ledning och ledarskap ur folkhögskolerektorers perspektiv. Den är en delstudie i ett större projekt där även ledare inom kulturskola ingår utifrån samma syfte att utforska ledning och ledarskap.

Teoretiska utgångspunkter för projektet tas i en diskursteoretisk ansats (Potter & Wetherell) i enkätmaterialet och en narrativ ansats (Polkinghorne; Eliott) i intervjumaterialet.

Metoder som används i projektet är webbenkät och gruppintervjuer i zoom. Enkät genomfördes vt 2024 och gruppintervjuer ht 2024.

Enkätfrågorna var utformade både som alternativ och öppna med frågor med rangordning, exempelvis ”folkhögskolans viktigaste uppdrag”, ”vilka eventuella möjligheter och hinder upplever du i jobbet” eller ”vilket stöd har du”.

Frågorna i gruppintervjun fördjupade webbenkätens frågor med fyra fördjupningar för samtal, exempelvis: ”hur ser förutsättningarna ut att leda Folkhögskolan”, ”hur mycket styrning tål Folkhögskolan” och ”vilken är den viktigaste framtidsfrågan”.

Av 156 tillfrågade folkhögskolerektorer svarade 65 vilket gav en svarsfrekvens på 41, 67% (påbörjad analys).

Av 65 tillfrågade deltog 7 folkhögskolerektorer i gruppintervju 1,5h fördelat på två grupper med 4 respektive 3 deltagare (inte analyserade).

På enkätens fråga 5 om vad folkhögskolans viktigaste uppdrag är, visar sig deltagaren som människa ha flest svar (35%) och aspekter i de öppna svarsalternativen tonar fram som ”få växa som människa”, ”kunna påverka sin livssituation och bidra till samhällsutvecklingen”, ”förstå sina egna förmågor och tillgångar”. Att jämföra med utbildning som 28% valde med aspekter som ”en andra chans” och ”ge människor en annan skolform som passar bättre”.

En preliminär slutsats som tonar fram är ett ledarskap som inte i första hand betraktar folkhögskolan som en utbildningsinstitution utan en plats av mer existentiell karaktär – där deltagaren som människa ges möjlighet att utvecklas i ett livsperspektiv. Det förutsätter både frihet och tillit för att kunna leda och skapa förutsättningar för andras behov av växande i ett rum där både kontroll och nedskärningar påverkar folkhögskolans möjligheter och fortlevnad.

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.