Students who attend part-time special education: Multiperspectival narrative inquiry

Author(s):

Anna Rytivaara(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

04. Inclusive Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

04 SES 07 B, Social Participation

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

17:15-18:45

Room:

D-501

Chair:

Elisabet Weedon

Contribution

Part-time special education is a particular feature of the world-famous Finnish school system (e.g. Jahnukainen, 2011; Kivirauma & Ruoho, 2007). From international and inclusive perspective, it is a means to support students with learning disabilities in general education. It can be considered an easy-access service as approximately 17% of secondary school students (grades 7–9) use it every year (Statistics Finland, 2011), usually to study one or two subjects in a small group. Nevertheless, part-time special education rarely appears in educational research as the focus or context of the study.

Both the large-scale questionnaires regarding, for example, students’ perceptions on school environment (Haapasalo, Välimaa, & Kannas, 2010) or critical incidents in their school career (Pyhältö, Soini, & Pietarinen, 2010), and school ethnographies with more detailed descriptions on students’ school life (e.g. Lahelma, 2002; Lahelma 2004) illustrate that secondary students’ school experiences gather around two major themes: teacher-student relationships and students’ peer relations. The studies done on the school experiences of students with special needs in Finland (e.g. Jokinen, 2012; Kivirauma, 1995) are limited to special class settings. In sum, we know little about part-time special education as experienced by students. This study aims at correcting this lacuna in our knowledge by exploring the school experiences of students who attend part-time special education. In particular, this study will address two questions: 1. What stories those students tell and live by? 2. Do the students live different stories in and out of classroom?

Method

The focus of this on-going collaborative narrative inquiry is on individual students’ lives, and the stories they tell and live by (their identities) will be explored through three dimensions: temporality, sociality and place (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Temporality means that events and stories always have past, present and future; sociality refers to the idea that all stories are both personal and social in nature; and place is about the context of the stories. Furthermore, narrative inquiry allows exploring an individual student’s school experiences from multiple perspectives – through various stories narrated by the researchers, students themselves and their teachers (Clandinin et al. 2006). We have negotiated entry into a secondary school in a middle-sized city in Finland. We have collaborated with a special education teacher in whose classroom we have spent altogether 50 lessons over a seven-week period in autumn 2012. In the classroom, we took the roles of an assistant during the class yet informing the students about the research. We have focused on three students and spent time with them during and between the lessons. The data comprises of our fieldnotes. The parents have signed informed consent to work with the students.

Expected Outcomes

The students’ (pseudonyms) stories, as they appear for us at the moment, seem to be very different from each other. Additionally, tensions between the perspectives are clear. Wanda’s story goes that working hard and being fast gives a ticket back to general education; but the teacher considers her problems so serious that she will stay in special education for a long time. Linda’s story is one of not caring for school assignments but she enjoys the teacher’s attention and puts a lot of effort in causing distraction. The teacher’s story about Linda has three major turns already: from a quiet student to a cheerful and smiling student and further into a rebelling student. Mark’s story is one of a modest nice student who enjoys his math assignments and works hard. We, as researchers, are still wondering why he is in part-time education as the teacher has not talked about him and he seems to be doing fine. Furthermore, the three students seem to live very different stories regarding their peers; different from each other yet similar to the stories they live by in the classroom.

References

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Clandinin, D. J., Huber, J., Huber, M., Murphy, M. S., Orr, A. M., Pearce, M., & Pinnegar, S. (2006). Composing diverse identities: Narrative inquiries into the interwoven lives of children and teachers. London: Routledge. Haapasalo, I., Välimaa, R., & Kannas, L. (2010). How comprehensive school students perceive their psychosocial school environment. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 54(2), 133-150. Jahnukainen, M. (2011). Different strategies, different outcomes? The history and trends of the inclusive and special education in Alberta (Canada) and in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 55(5), 489-502. Jokinen, K. (2012). Opintie pienluokan kautta: Peruskoulun alkuopetuksen pienluokkatoiminnan arviointia. [Evaluation of the special class activities in primary education] Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. Kokkola Chydenius. Kivirauma, J. (1995). Koulun varjossa: Entiset tarkkailuoppilaat kertovat koulukokemuksistaan. [In the shadow the the school. School experiences of former special class students.] Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. Kivirauma, J., & Ruoho, K. (2007). Excellence through special education? Lessons from the Finnish school reform. International Review of Education, 53(3), 283-302. Lahelma, E. (2002). School is for meeting friends: Secondary school as lived and remembered. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23(3), 367-381. Lahelma, E. (2004). Tolerance and understanding? Students and teachers reflect on differences at school. Educational Research and Evaluation, 10(1), 3-19. Pyhältö, K., Soini, T., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pupils’ pedagogical well-being in comprehensive school—significant positive and negative school experiences of Finnish ninth graders. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 25(2), 207-221. Statistics Finland. (2011). Special education. http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/erop/2010/erop_2010_2011-06-09_tau_005_fi.html Printed 24.10.2012.

Author Information

Anna Rytivaara (presenting / submitting)

University of Jyväskylä; University of Tampere

Department of Education; School of Education

University of Tampere

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