This presentation discusses teacher collaboration in matters of support for learning in Finnish lower secondary schools (students aged 13-15). Finland, like most European countries, is committed to inclusive values in education, and collaboration between special education teachers (SETs) and subject teachers is central in the current support system: According to the national curriculum, support for learning should be planned, implemented and assessed in teacher collaboration. In international research, teacher collaboration appears to be the most often mentioned inclusive way of working and it has been shown to improve student achievement and teacher motivation and engagement. However, the concept remains complex and schools experience difficulties in establishing practices of joint work among teachers.

The aim of this presentation is to describe the collaboration between SETs and subject teachers in mainstream lower secondary schools. SETs do not have a class of their own but provide part-time special education for students who need it, among their other duties. To be able to provide a comprehensive picture of this collaboration, the results of four recent studies are used and combined. The first study asked what collaboration between subject teachers and SETs includes and how teachers describe their collaborative actions. The results were compared with Hargreaves’ (1994) ideas of different teacher cultures and other existing research on teacher collaboration. The three other studies inquired what support for learning is according to students, subject teachers and SETs. As the theme of collaboration emerged in these studies as well, their findings complement the insights of the first study. All studies used data-driven content analysis as the research method. It was complemented with frequencies when appropriate.

As teacher collaboration remains a vague concept, the aim of this presentation is to provide a concrete example of what teacher collaboration is in the practice of Finnish lower secondary schools. The bigger question, however, is whether lower secondary school teachers are able to collaborate enough and in ways that actually promote inclusion. Given the central role of teacher collaboration as an enabler of inclusion, collaboration should be more vigorously studied and discussed. It would be interesting to hear what teacher collaboration is in other countries, how it is promoted and how other researchers understand teacher collaboration.

The data for this presentation are 115 subject teachers’, 63 SETs’ and 54 students’ responses to electronic questionnaires concerning support for learning in lower secondary school. SETs’ and subject teachers’ responses to questions that directly asked about collaboration were used as the data for the first study. The three other studies concentrated on a particular stakeholder group’s perspective and inquired about SETs’ current work description, subject teachers’ perceptions of support for learning and students’ views of the support they have received for their learning. The questionnaires were mainly built on open-ended questions and the main method of analysis in all studies was data-driven content analysis. Using an inductive approach and drawing the categories from the data seemed appropriate due to little research on collaboration in lower secondary context, and due to the aim of describing the current situation. Though a qualitative approach was used, percentages and frequencies were counted where appropriate to support the analysis.

Five different collaborative actions were detected from the data: exchanging information regarding common students or content of an upcoming lesson, writing pedagogical documents, consulting one another, co-teaching and planning support measures and tests. The form of the collaboration was most often an unplanned and unscheduled discussion during a break. Four categories describing the quality of teacher collaboration were also found. These were dysfunctional, uncertain, comfortable and professional collaboration. They have many similarities with Hargreaves' ideas, though some aspects, such as contrived collegialism and moving mosaic are missing. According to the results, avoidant and unpredictable, as well as positive or professional collaborative behaviours can be encountered in any school. In this sense, our categories tell more about individual teachers’ collaborative skills than school cultures. Based on the findings, it is not easy for lower secondary school teachers to collaborate. In teachers’ descriptions, the main barriers for collaboration are lack of time, inflexible organizational structures and varying levels of both teacher commitment to collaboration and teachers’ collaborative skills. SETs see potential in collaboration, but subject teachers would rather have SETs concentrate on their direct work with students.

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