The purpose of this study is to examine the following research question: What characterizes teachers’ formal competencies related to inclusive education and special needs education in the Norwegian primary school?  

In Norway, inclusive education has been a guiding principle for almost 20 years (Johnsen, 2020; Nilsen, 2010), and all pupils, irrespective of their background or individual abilities, has a legal right to education in the regular local school (Nes et al., 2018). When talking about “inclusive education” and “inclusive schools” in Norway, we therefore refer to local schools, which must provide for all pupils, regardless of social, cultural, and academic differences or disability. Furthermore, pupils who are unable to benefit satisfactorily from ordinary teaching have an individual right to special education.  However, 15-25% of the pupils need additional help to achieve satisfactory learning outcomes (Nordahl et al., 2018). Haug (2020) has shown that “the average pupil receiving special education, as well as pupils with educational needs not receiving special education, express a far less favourable experience of school, compared to those who do not strive or receive special education” (Haug, 2020, p.312). Hence, there is reason to believe that many pupils could benefit from schools having teachers with special educational competencies in terms of preventive work, early identification, and implementation of adequate help (Olsen, 2021). 

Teachers’ competencies have significant impact on educational quality (Baumert et al. 2010), but several studies has shown that regular teachers find it difficult to meet the needs of all their pupils (Persson and Persson, 2012; Allan, 2012). Thygesen et al. (2011) claim that in inclusive schools the diversity among pupils might lead to a need for specialist expertise beyond what general education teachers can provide. Olsen (2021) has suggested that formal competence special needs education makes teachers more positively disposed towards diversity.  Good teacher competencies are crucial if all pupils are to benefit from both the academic, social, and cultural activities in an inclusive school (Dyssegaard et al., 2013), and specific expert knowledge is key to meeting the educational needs of all children (Florian, 2019). Furthermore, teachers who have studied special needs education for one year, experience a greater sense of security related to adapting the regular education than teachers without such training (Buli-Holmberg et al. 2015). Knowledge about teachers’ competencies related to inclusive education and special needs education are consequently of importance.

The theoretical framework is inspired by the three-tier model as explained in Sundqvist et al. (2019), a framework developed for structuring and systematizing educational support into 1) general support, 2) intensified support, and 3) special support, depending on pupils' identified needs. Keles et al (2022) shows that although this framework directs the pupils into different intervention tracks, it has been recommended as an approach to inclusive education since pupils might be “treated unequally in order to achieve equity” (Nes & Strømstad, 2006, p. 366). In this project we use this model to refer to different dimensions of special educational competencies, whereas level 1) refers to special educational knowledge on how to be proactive and prevent negative learning outcome  (e.g. inclusive learning environment, universal design and early intervention), level 2) refers to special educational knowledge on how to address the needs of pupils who require additional support to benefit from primary intervention  (e.g. pupils with reading difficulties), and level 3) to knowledge needed to provide education for those  who have complex and/or permanent special educational needs (e.g. severe or rare disabilities).  

This study is based on data gathered through two digital surveys forwarded to schools in more than 40 Norwegian municipalities across the country. The first survey was carried out in 2022, and a total of 3224 regular teachers in Norwegian primary school (age 6 – 15) responded. The second survey are to be carried out in another set of municipalities during the spring of 2023. We expect a similar number of respondents on the second survey, meaning that altogether this study draws on data from a solid sample of Norwegian teachers. The schools who are invited to participate are located in municipalities which participate in the national initiative Competence enhancement for special pedagogy and inclusive practice (Stokke et al., 2022). All municipalities have requested an analysis of their competence status, and all individual respondents participate based on informed consent. The project is approved by SIKT (https://sikt.no/en/data-protection-services). In the surveys, the respondents are first presented with various questions and claims within three different areas: 1) inclusion, 2) interdisciplinary interaction and 3) organization and management and organizational development. Second, they are asked what kind of formal education they have, and whether they have formal training in special needs education. They are furthermore asked what kind of specific competencies they themselves possess when it comes to special needs education and inclusion. During the analytical process the specific special needs competencies that the teachers report will be organised in accordance with the three-tier model. We use SurveyXact (https://www.surveyxact.com/ ), as platform for dispatch and analysis, and further analyses have also been carried out in IBM SPSS. The analysis methods are primarily aimed at understanding the competencies across different groups, based on descriptive statistics (de Vaus, 2014), mainly frequency analysis and cross tables. We have also split some answers to get a more nuanced picture and crossed some variables to assess co-variation. These cross-tabulation analysis are tested for significance using the chi-square test. The analyses are ongoing.

The Norwegian teacher education has recently been altered from 4 to 5 years, now with an integrated master’s degree. However, few universities have a master program which includes special needs educational subjects. Consequently, relatively few new regular teachers possess knowledge regarding adaptation of education for pupils who need extra support (Olsen, 2021). It is therefore, expected to see a low or none degree of formal competencies related to special needs education amongst those who have recently graduated. The preliminary findings indicate, that although many teachers have practical experience with teaching on all three levels in the three-tier model, relatively few have formal special educational competence. Whether this is an accurate picture remains to be seen. We assume that teachers will report that the schools have competencies within general education, but less so for special needs education. We are interested to see whether the degree to which an individual has special needs competencies, affect the assessment of the collective competencies at their institution. Through the analyses, we will be able to shed light on what kind of competencies employees in the school believe that their institutions possess, and which are lacking. Furthermore, we will see how employees perceive this, based on own educational background, position at the school, as well as any regional differences. It is important to establish knowledge about the characteristics of teachers’ competencies related to inclusive education and special needs education in order to evaluate whether or not the current model of teacher education in Norway sufficiently prepares teachers to work in a school where everyone is to be included, regardless of special education needs.

Allan, J. (2012). Difference in policy and politics: Dialogues in confidence. Review of Disability Studies, 14-24. Baumert, J., et al. (2010) Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge, Cognitive Activation in the Classroom, and Student Progress. American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 133-180. Buli-Holmberg, J., Nilsen, S. & Skogen, K. (2015). Kultur for tilpasset opplæring. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. de Vaus, D.A. (2014). Surveys in Social Research. Routledge. Dyssegaard, C.B., Larsen, M.S. & Tiftikçi, N. (2013). Effekt og pædagogisk indsats ved inklusion af børn med særlige behov i grundskolen. Aarhus Universitet. Florian, L. (2019). On the necessary co-existence of special and inclusive education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23:7-8, 691-704, Haug, P. (2020) Inclusion in Norwegian schools: pupils’ experiences of their learning environment, Education 3-13, 48:3, 303-315, Johnsen, B. H. (2020). From Historical Roots to Future Perspectives towards Inclusive Education. In B. H. Johnsen (Ed.), Theory and Methodology in International Comparative Classroom Studies (pp. 18-35). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. Keles, S., ten Braak, D. & Munthe, E. (2022): Inclusion of students with special education needs in Nordic countries: a systematic scoping review, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Nes, K., Demo, H. & Ianes, D. (2018). Inclusion at risk? Push- and pullout phenomena in inclusive school systems: the Italian and Norwegian experiences, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22:2, 111-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1362045 Nilsen, S. (2010). Moving towards an educational policy for inclusion? Main reform stages in the development of the Norwegian unitary school system, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14:5, 479-497. Nordahl, T., et al. 2018. Inkluderende fellesskap for barn og unge. Fagbokforlaget. Nes, K., & Strømstad, M. (2006). Strengthened adapted education for all—No more special education? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(4–5), 363–378. Olsen, M.H. (2021). A practical-theoretical perspective on the inclusive school in Norway. I N.B. Hanssen, S.E., Hansen & K. Ström (Red.), Dialogues between Northern and Eastern Europe on the Development of Inclusion: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives (s. 99–114). Routledge. Persson, B. & Persson, E. (2012). Inkludering och måluppfyllelse. Liber. Stokke, H.S., Tveitnes, M. S., Lied, S. I. & Olsen, M. H. (2022) KOSIP. Spesialpedagogikk 4/2022. Sundqvist, C., Björk-Åman, C., & Ström, K. (2019). The three-tiered support system and the special education teachers’ role in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 34(5), 601–616. Thygesen, R. et al. (2011). Er generell pedagogisk kompetanse tilstrekkelig for å sikre en inkluderende skole? Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift 95(2), 103–114.