Good Education For Young People With Special Needs - About Educational Dimensioning Of Transitions In Schools And Higher Education
Author(s):
Leo Komischke-Konnerup (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Format:
Paper

Session Information

20 SES 08, Young People with Special Needs and Transitions and Subject Teachers' Response to Diverse Students and Index for Inclusion

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-10
09:00-10:30
Room:
665.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Gyöngyvér Pataki

Contribution

This paper originates from an ongoing educational research project entitled "Good education for all – including young people with special needs".

The purpose of the research project is to study, describe and discuss educational practice in a specialized school and education system with a view to developing an empirically-based general educational contribution to the issue of education for all. The purpose is partly to encourage professional educational practice to develop a more inclusive practice in schools and other institutes of education – and partly to help broaden public discussion about education for all to include developing general educational theory based on empirical research from a specialized school and education context.

The project is a PhD project at Aalborg University and University College South Denmark. The research project was developed in cooperation with 30 schools and other institutes of education, all of which belong to an alternative school and education system for young people with special needs in Denmark – The Union of Associations for Equality (Foreningsfællesskabet Ligeværd (FFL)). The project comprises empirical and theoretical studies in the field in which I have been working since 2007 (Komischke-Konnerup 2009, 2010a+b, 2012).

The project examines three research questions:

  • Which types of educational actions, contexts and situations are characteristic of schooling and educational practice at the schools and other institutes of education within FFL?

  • Within the FFL school and education system, which concepts are applied and on what approaches to school and education is practice founded?

  • How can experience gained in FFL's specific school and educational practice make a positive contribution to educational criticism and the development of the education policy goal to provide education for all?

Method

The project has an overarching praxeological, general educational perspective (Benner 2012; Uljens 1998; Komischke-Konnerup 2014a+b). First and foremost, school and education for young people with special needs are regarded as a general type of human practice which is indispensable for participation in social and practical human existence (Komischke-Konnerup & Oettingen 2010). The project makes qualitative empirical studies and studies of general educational theory and how it is formed (Benner 2012; Biesta 2004; Prange & Strobel-Eisele 2006). Two different institutions for special needs students are selected as exemplary cases and these are the objects of the project's empirical studies. One is a school for 16-19-year-olds and the other an institute of education for students aged 18-25. The study of educational practice at these two institutions is a field study, which includes participative observation, ethnographic interviews and documentary studies. The field studies extended over a period of about 18 months. My empirical studies focus in particular on three areas of educational practice which also suggest three different levels of analysis: 1) An operational level with focus on the educational actions that are characteristic of educational procedures at the co-housing scheme, workshop and school. 2) A normative level with focus on the approaches and assumptions, which are associated with the specific procedures and constitute their normative context. 3) An institutional level with focus on the locations of educational practice, and the assumptions and approaches associated with them. My analysis of the empirical material is based on general educational concepts and theories and on significant approaches and assumptions from educational practice at the two institutions.

Expected Outcomes

At the institutions I have studied, it is clear that any transition in the school and education process demands specific educational attention. The transitions expose some of the pupils' special needs and raise a number of fundamental educational issues in connection with the schooling and education of this type of student. These are particularly obvious when these students start at a new FFL institution. The initial transition can be described as the transition from the student's perception of himself as a person who does not learn or participate in or belong - to his perceiving himself as a student who learns, participates in and belongs to a school and educational context. From the educator's perspective, this transition is possibly the most difficult because, at school, many of these students have already discovered that they cannot learn or participate in or gain a sense of belonging to a school and educational context. The question is: how can these students best learn to see themselves as learning, participating in and belonging to a cultural context in which they have already learned that they cannot learn and participate in and belong to? The first transition emphasizes therefore the need for a re-learning process, in which students who have a consistent history of failure in school and education must be given an opportunity to learn and participate in the school and educational context. The preliminary results of the research project indicate that not only the dimensioning of fundamental educational procedures, but also the educational organization of the normative contexts which are inevitably associated with these educational actions, are significant to special needs students' participation in school and education.

References

Benner, Dietrich (2012): Allgemeine Pädagogik. Eine systematisch-problemgeschichtliche Einführung in die Grundstruktur pädagogischen Denkens und Handelns, 7. korrigierte Aufl. Weinheim; Basel: Beltz Juventa. Biesta, G.J.J. (2004): Against learning: Reclaiming a language for education in an age of learning. I: Nordisk Pedagogik, nr.1, 2004. Komischke-Konnerup, L. (2009): AFSL-projektet. Almen dannelse på de frie kostskoler i Skolesammenslutningen Ligeværd. Haderslev: UC Syd. Komischke-Konnerup, L. (2010a): Arbejde, omsorg og fællesskab – om det almene i specialpædagogisk praksis. I: Komischke-Konnerup, L. & Hansen, N.B. (red.). (2010): Specialundervisning på hovedet – almene pædagogiske synspunkter. Århus: Klim. Komischke-Konnerup, L. (2010b): Skoler der gør en forskel – om skolen som dannelsesinstitution. I: Komischke-Konnerup, L. & Hansen, N.B. (red.). (2010): Specialundervisning på hovedet – almene pædagogiske synspunkter. Århus: Klim. Komischke-Konnerup, L. (2012): Mere end en undtagelse – nogle almene pædagogiske synspunkter på efterskolens pædagogiske og politiske opgave. I: Komischke-Konnerup, L. (red.). (2012): Efterskolen i samfundet – almene pædagogiske synspunkter. Aarhus: Klim. Komischke-Konnerup, L (2014a): Folkeskolens pædagogik – ren og klar eller praktisk og fri? Nogle almene pædagogiske synspunkter på folkeskolens undervisning. I: Tanggaard, L., Rømer, T. Aa. & Brinkmann, S. (red.) (2014): Uren pædagogik 2. Århus: Klim. Komischke-Konnerup, L. (2014b): Mellem individ og samfund – nogle almene pædagogiske synspunkter på skole og ungdomsuddannelse. I: Etik – Fællesskab – Dannelse. Kognition og Pædagogik, nr. 94, December 2014, 24. årgang. København: Dansk Psykologisk forlag Prange, K. & Strobel-Eisele, G. (2006): Die Formen des pädagogischen Handelns. Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer. Uljens, M. (1998): Allmän pedagogik. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Author Information

Leo Komischke-Konnerup (presenting / submitting)
University College South Denmark
The Danish National Centre of inclusive Practice
Haderslev

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