This paper aims to discuss purpose of education for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). The question of purpose of education shall be seen in a wide sense in relation to the intertwined relationship between education and democracy (Biesta, 2010). Biesta declares the purpose of education to be a composite question and with regard to education as a human and democratic right, it needs to be asked continuously. Thus we need to maintain an open space for the discussion of what the purpose of education can and should be. In addition to this and considering diversity within and between students groups, this question needs to be contextualised into various educational settings such as special schools as well as mainstream schools including students with diverse and complex educational needs.

Research on inclusive education (e.g., Ferguson, 2008) and special needs education (e.g., Östlund, 2012; Wakeman, Karvonen, & Ahumada, 2013) are rich of insights regarding challenges for educating students with intellectual disabilities. One key characteristic of this research is a clear indication of the need of responsive teachers who adapt teaching with great variation following the students’ various needs of support. As teachers change and adapt the curricular content in teaching, it leads me to the question of what content is made available for the students to acquire knowledge about. I contend that adaptions and flexibility are unavoidable in all teaching, but simultaneously it directs attention to what is being taught, how it is taught and why. In the long term view it points to questions valid for all education; what is it for? What is the purpose of education? This paper is guided by the research question: How can purpose of education be expressed in teaching for students with intellectual disabilities? My intention here is to discuss possible answers to this question since I think it is important not to determine what the purpose of education can and should be.

In the paper I do a re-analysis of data from classroom practice in a special school for students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities in the ages of 16-19 years. Data was collected as part of a small project on students’ rights in education in special schools. During four days I and a colleague took field notes when doing participant observations of teaching and breaks in the special school. As many of the students have learning difficulties and are in need of assistance both teachers and student assistants are included in the material. Although the teachers were mainly responsible for teaching, assistants also taught one-to-one with students. For the analysis I use Gert Biesta’s (2008, 2010) theoretical dimensions of education which is constituted by three functions; qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In short qualification refers to providing children, young people and adults with knowledge, skills and forms of judgement that allow them to ‘do something’ (Biesta, 2010, p. 20), which can range from the specific to the general, i.e. doing a specific job or a profession to employ life skills and general knowledge in being a citizen of a society. Briefly, socialisation refers to the process of how we become part of existing ‘orders’ (ibid., p. 20) socially, culturally and politically. Subjectification is described to be almost the opposite. It refers to “ways of being that hint at independence from such orders, ways of being in which the individual is not simply a ‘specimen’ of a more encompassing order” (ibid., p. 21). With an overview look of the dimensions it is possible to see parallels in that qualification refers to what, socialisation refers to how and subjectification refers to why in teaching.  

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