Consultation in Special Needs Education in Rural Schools in Sweden - A Tool for Teacher Professional Development

Author(s):

Kristina Ström(presenting / submitting)Gerd Pettersson(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 09 A, Professional Learning through Extra Curricular Activities

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

13:30-15:00

Room:

K3.17

Chair:

Contribution

Background

Schools in rural areas face complex challenges related to unfavorable population structure, financial constraints, lack of human capital, difficulties in attracting and retaining qualified teachers etc. Furthermore, the quality of rural schools may be questioned and many rural schools live under the threat of closure. Yet, as long as rural areas are populated schools exist and children in rural areas are entitled to the same quality education as their urban peers.

Teachers working in rural schools face different working conditions compared to teachers in urban schools. Although rural communities are diverse, most rural schools share common characteristics; geographic isolation, a low number of students and teachers, multi-grade classrooms, diverse learning needs among students, lack of support staff and scarce professional development opportunities. Also the work of rural teachers differs from the work of their urban colleagues; they have to cope with a variety of working tasks ranging from administration to handling conflicts with the surrounding community. Moreover, educational challenges caused by student diversity combined with lack of special educators may place added strain on teachers working in rural schools.

Previous research on rural schools indicates that work-related support and teacher collaboration are crucial for teacher retention and job satisfaction. The published research in this field is mainly from Australia and US. The scarcity of European and Scandinavian research on teacher collaboration and special needs education in rural schools caught our interest and in order to fill this research gap a study of one specific teacher support strategy, namely school consultation, was conducted in three rural schools in Northern Sweden. Consultation is for the purpose of this study conceptualized as a form of indirect service delivery provided by special educators in order to support teachers who work with diverse student groups.

Aim and research questions

The aim of the study is to shed light on how the expertise of special educators in the context of school consultation can be utilized in order to support the professional development of teachers who work in rural schools with a diverse student body. The empirical study was guided by the following research questions: 1. How do teachers describe the rural school as context for consultation? 2. How is consultation perceived as a teacher support strategy in rural schools? 3. What strategies appear in consultation between teachers and special educators?

Method

Method The context of the study is the county of Västerbotten in Sweden. The county, which includes 15 municipalities, is more sparsely populated than most counties in the country. The study was conducted in three rural schools in three different rural municipalities in the county. The chosen municipalities were located in the coastal region, in the inland and in the mountain area, representing the demographic and geographic structure of the county. From each of the three schools one class teacher and one special educator participated in the study. The empirical data were collected in 2015 during site visits to the schools. The data collection methods included observations, interviews and questionnaires. The main empirical material for this study consisted of transcripts from three authentic consultation sessions (one in each school) between the class teacher and the special educator. The empirical data were analyzed in several steps according to the principles of qualitative content analysis. The aim was to find stable categories that reflected the meaning of data in relation to the research questions posed.

Expected Outcomes

Findings The data analysis resulted in three main categories; a good learning environment for all children, we cope but need somebody to talk to, and working, learning and growing together. The teachers described the rural school as a good learning environment for all children (research question 1). In all teacher statements about the learning environment good relationships and acceptance of diversity were identified. The teachers also talked about pedagogical advantages. However, lack of resources was a constant challenge. The category we cope but we need somebody to talk to reflected the teachers’ perceptions of consultation as a support strategy (research question 2). The teachers contacted the special educators when they felt concern for a student with a special need. However, an interesting finding was that they did not primarily ask for direct advice, instead they sought support and confirmation for their pedagogical solutions from the special educator. The teachers’ consultation strategies (research question 3) were characterized by professional dialogue between to equal partners who brought their own professional expertise into the discussion. Thus the category was named working, learning and growing together. The focus was on collaboration and professional exchange. The findings indicate that school consultation that emphasizes collaboration can be used as a tool for professional development for teachers working in rural schools.

References

References Autti, O., & Hyry-Beihammer, E. K. (2014). School closures in rural Finnish communities. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 29(1), 1–17. Berry, A. B. (2012). The relationship of perceived support to satisfaction and commitment for special education teachers in rural areas. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 31(1), 3–14. Bagley, C. & Hillyard, S. (2011). Village Schools in England: At the heart of their community? Australian Journal of Education, 55 (1), 37-49. Barley, Z., A. & Andrea D Beesly, A., D. (2007) Rural School Success: What can we learn? Journal of Research in Rural Education, 22(1) Edwards, A., Lunt, I. & Stamou, E. (2010). Inter-professional work and expertise: new roles at the boundaries of schools. British Educational Research Journal, 36, (1), 27-45. Egelund, N. & Laustsen, H. (2006). School closure: What are the consequences for a local society? Nordic Journal of Educational Research, 50(4), 429–439. Idol, L. (2006). Toward Inclusion of Special Education. Students in General Education. A Program Evaluation of Eight Schools. Remedial and Special Education 27: 77-94. Kalaoja, E., & Pietarinen, J. (2009). Small rural primary schools in Finland: A pedagogically valuable part of the school network. International Journal of Educational Research, 48, 109–116. Karlberg-Granlund, G. (2009). Att förstå det stora i det lilla: byskolan som pedagogik, kultur och struktur [To understand the greatness in small things: The rural school as education, culture and structure]. PhD dissertation, Åbo: Åbo Akademi University. Lind, T., & Stjernström, O. (2015). Organizational challenges for schools in rural municipalities: Cross-national comparisons in a Nordic context. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 30(6), 1-14. Malloy, W.W. & Allen, T. (2007). Teacher retention in a teacher resiliency-building rural school . The Rural Educator, vol 28, nr 2, 19-27.’ Pettersson, G., Ström, K. & Johansen, J-B. (2016). Teachers' Views on Support in Small Rural Schools for Students with Special Educational Needs. Accepted for publishing in Nordic Studies of Education, nr 1/2016. Sundqvist, C. & Ström, K. (2015). Special education teachers as consultants: Perspectives of Finnish teachers. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 25:4, 314-338. Tuters, S. (2014): Conceptualising diversity in a rural school. International Journal of Inclusive Education 1-12.

Author Information

Kristina Ström (presenting / submitting)

Åbo Akademi University

Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies

Vaasa

Gerd Pettersson (presenting)

Umeå university

Department of Education

Umeå

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