To build a profession : A qualitative study of special needs education students, focusing on working with children with intellectual disability, at the intersection between working life and postgraduate education

Då behovet av specialpedagogisk kompetens ökar ute i skolorna, krävs det att speciallärarutbildningarna uppfyller en viss kvalitet angående yrkesutbildningen och dess profession. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur speciallärarstudenter med inriktning utvecklingsstörning upplever utbildningens innehåll, praktiskt genomförande och villkoren för det egna lärandet i spänningsfältet mellan akademisk påbyggnadsutbildning och professionell yrkesutövning. Detta är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på intervjuer med sju speciallärarstudenter, inriktning utvecklingsstörning. Det insamlade empiriska materialet har bearbetats utifrån tematisk analys. Tre teman framkom och blev fokus för vårt resultat: “Speciallärarutbildningens teoretiska inslag”; “Speciallärarutbildningen och studenternas yrkespraktik” samt “Gapet mellan utbildningsbaserade kunskaper och skolorganisationens förändringsbenägenhet”. Genom denna studie har vi konstaterat att de intervjuade speciallärarstudenterna upplever en stor diskrepans mellan vad som lärs ut i utbildningen och deras yrkespraktik. Vidare framkom önskemål och idéer om hur utbildningen borde justeras för att möta behoven som speciallärare, inriktning utvecklingsstörning väntas hantera och tillgodose i yrkeslivet. Denna studie är en del av en forskningsansökan till Vetenskapsrådet av Höstfält, G., Falkner, K. (2018, april), "The (re)emergence of a profession: Swedish special needs teachers in the field of tension of the day-to-day work and graduate education.".As the need for special education skills increases in schools, special education courses need to meet a certain quality of academic standards and professional needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how special needs teacher students, focusing on working with children with intellectual disability, experience the content and carrying out of the education, as well as the conditions for the student’s own learning at the intersection between academic education and occupational practice as a special teacher in schools. This is a qualitative study, based on interviews with seven special needs teacher students, focusing on working with children with intellectual disability. The empirical data has been processed from the point of view of thematic analysis where three themes emerged and became the focus of our result: "Theorization of special education"; "Special Education and Student Occupational Practice" and "The gap between education-based knowledge and the lack of schools’ ability to change". Through this study, we have found that the interviewed students experience a major discrepancy between what is learned through education and their practical work experiences. Furthermore, the interviewed students presented ideas and suggestions for how the education should be adjusted to meet the needs special teachers, focusing on working with children with intellectual disability, are expected to deal with and fulfill in their profession. The present study is a part of an application to Swedish Research Council, prepared by Höstfält, G., Falkner, K. (2018, April), "The (re)emergence of a profession: Swedish special needs teachers in the field of tension of the day-to-day work and graduate education."