Special Education Needs in Upper Secondary Schools: Resources and Organization. - A total Survey of Sweden
Author(s):
Joacim Ramberg (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2012
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES B 01, Inclusive Education

Parallel Paper Session

Time:
2012-09-17
11:00-12:30
Room:
FCEE - Aula 2.1
Chair:

Contribution

The numbers of students who do not complete an upper secondary education are in many European countries a large problem (for example: Albert, C. 2000. & Te Riele, K & Crump, S. 2002), and not least in Sweden (Swedish National Agency of Education, SNAE 2008). Over the last ten years the numbers of dropouts from upper secondary school have been very high and last year, every third student did not fulfill their education. (Murray 2007; SCB 2008 & SNAE 2011).

The phenomenon of low completion rate or dropouts, from secondary education may imply a personal failure for many students, but it can be considered also as a problem for the society. This is particularly noticeable in Sweden, since we have one of the highest numbers of dropouts in Europe and other comparable countries (OECD 2011). In the same time, achieving upper secondary school education is described as a minimum level of education to get established in the labor market (SOU 1996:27).

These problems form the base issues for this ongoing study which looks at what upper secondary schools do to prevent students’ school failure and at how upper secondary schools give support to students risking to not complete their secondary education.  The focus is in particular on the utilization of special education teachers (SET) in upper secondary education.  The aim of this study is to investigate the special educational practices that are employed in Swedish upper secondary schools, the amount of special needs resources, their organization and content. Another aim is to investigate if there are different approaches among public and independent schools.

A number of research (for example: Markussen 2004; Staub & Peck 1994 and Gartner & Lipsky 1999) indicate that inclusive school environments raises the level of knowledge, especially among students with special needs. In addition to the increased knowledge for all students would the inclusive schools also result in social benefits, not only for students with special needs but for all.

In common with many European countries, the Swedish policy documents declare that support shall be given to students with special needs and that the support shall, as far as it is possible, be given within the frame of their regular teaching group.

The way of organization special education are well discussed and are in this study treated by the concepts of exclusion and inclusion, which are connected by two theoretical perspectives: the individual perspective and the organization perspective. Briefly, the perspectives are about way of looking at a student´s school problems and these perspectives are about to be discussed in relation to the results of the study. The individual perspective sought generally causal problems to the individual and the actions are mainly oriented towards diagnosis and compensation, which mainly are focused outside the regular teaching group. In the opposite, the organizational perspective sought causal problems inside the school and advocates that support shall be given inside the regular teaching group.  In Sweden, historically, the individual perspective has been dominant (Hjörne & Säljö 2008).

Method

This study is a total population survey of all upper secondary schools in Sweden (n=952), performed during the academic year 2010/2011. A questionnaire was sent to all schools and was primarily answered by the principal or the SET. The response rate was high, 80, 5%. The answers in the questionnaire are linked to a considerable number of existing variables for each school, taken from the SNAE. These variables treat students´ average grade, parental education level, public or independent schools, percentage of students with complete grades etc. In total, they constitute a database at school level. The first part in the questionnaire deals with the amount of SETs at the school and one block of questions in the questionnaire deals with the SETs working methods and their contents. Before the analysis procedure some variables were weighted in relation to the number of students at the school to get relevant comparison values. In order to compare different groups of schools the comparison method with independent T-test (t=d/Sed´) have been used. This test allows to get a good picture of differences in mean values between groups, particularly in the case of large sample groups (Djurfeldt et. al 2010).

Expected Outcomes

The results of the analysis show that there are relatively few SETs in upper secondary schools, compared to primary schools. The employment rate is more than twice as high in primary schools (SNAE 2011). The comparison value being used is the number of minutes of SET / week / student and school. An interesting result worth highlighting is that there is a strong significant difference (p>0,000) between the group of public schools and independent schools. The average value for the public schools is 7, 2 minutes while the independent schools had 2, 4 minutes. In the case of SETs working methods and their extent, there are no significant differences between the two groups of schools. It is clear that SETs work mainly is focused outside the regular teaching group, when it comes to support students with special needs. The response that occurred in the lowest grade was to support inside the student´s regular teaching group, while the most common was to support outside their regular teaching group. In summary, the analysis shows that there are big differences in the amount of SET between public and independent schools as groups, and that their practices are largely dominated by exclusionary methods.

References

Albert, C. (2000). Higher education demand in Spain: The influence of labor? market signals and family background. Higher education, 40. Sid 147-162. Djurfeldt, G., Larsson, R & Stjärnhagen. O. (2010). Statistisk verktygslåda – samhällsvetenskaplig orsaksanalys med kvantitativa metoder. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Gartner, A. & Lipsky, D. K. 1999. Disability, human rights and education. In Armstrong, L. & Barton, L. (Eds). Buckingham and Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press. Hjörne, E. Säljö, R. 2008. Att platsa i en skola för alla. Elevhälsa och förhandling om normalitet i den svenska skolan. Finland. Norstedts Akademiska Förlag. Markussen, E. (2004). Special education: does it help?- A study of special education in Norwegian upper secondary schools. European Journal of Special Needs Education. Vol 19, No1, March 2004. Murray, Å. (2007). Genomströmning I gymnasieskolan. Före och efter gymnasiereformen.” In J. Olofsson. (Eds.), Utbildningsvägen – vart leder den? (pp.143-155). Stockholm, SNS förlag. OECD (2011). Education at a glance 2010: Education indicators. OECD Publishing. SCB (2008). Youths without completed upper secondary education – a survey with many challenges. Statistics Sweden 2008. Örebro. SNAE (2008). Studieavbrott och stödinsatser i gymnasieskolan. En kunskapssammanställning. Rapport 2008:322. Stockholm. Sweden. Skolverket. SNAE (2011). Betyg och studieresultat i gymnasieskolan 2010/11. Stockholm. Sweden. Skolverket. SOU 1996:27. (1996). En strategi för kunskapslyft och livslångt lärande: Delbetänkande av kommittén om ett nationellt kunskapslyft för vuxna. Stockholm. Utbildningsdepartementet. Staub, D & Peck, C. A. 1994. What are the outcomes for nondisabled students? Educational Leadership, 52(4), Sid. 36-40. Te Riele, K. & Crump, S. (2002). Young people, education and hope: Bringing VET in from the margins. International Journal of Inclusive Education. Vol:6, No.3. Sid 251-266.

Author Information

Joacim Ramberg (presenting / submitting)
University of Stockholm
Årsta

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