2006:10 R

Evaluation of programmes in special education at higher education institutions in Sweden

The evaluation was entrusted by the National Agency to a panel of external assessors consisting of three subject experts from Norway and Sweden, a representative of future employers from the school system and two students, one of whom took a degree in special education while the evaluation was in progress. The member of the National Agency´s staff responsible for the project was initially Ann-Britt Gabrielsson, later succeeded by Jana Hejzlar and Anton Ridderstad, who also acted as secretary for the panel of assessors.

The panel´s report consists of two sections: one with general impressions and recommendations and one with descriptions of the specific higher education institutions, impressions and recommendations. The panel is responsible for the contents of its report. The decisions of the National Agency and its reflections, with which the report begins, are based on the opinions of the panel.

Programmes that lead to the award of degrees in special education have changed during the 1980s and 1990s both in terms of the conditions in which they are offered and content. The earlier programmes in remedial teaching, which focused mainly on pupils with various disabilities and learning difficulties, have been replaced in two stages by the new programme in special education. However, these are still advanced courses that require a general teaching qualification and at least three years of teaching experience.

The current degree ordinance stipulates that the main aim of programmes in special education is acquisition of the knowledge and skills required for active work with pupils in need of special support. In addition there are a number of subordinate objectives that state that these teachers must be able to undertake educational counselling, supervision and educational development. All the programmes have however interpreted this as meaning that special teachers have a new professional role in which the concrete work with pupils with special needs is a subordinate objective.

As the panel of assessors states in its report, however, schools have great expectations and needs where coping with pupils with learning difficulties is concerned. The structure of the programmes in special education presupposes that other groups in the schools, in particular teachers and administrators, will adapt their organisations on the basis of these presuppositions. The National Agency urges those responsible for these programmes to carry on a dialogue with representatives of the school system to achieve constructive solutions.

On the basis of the report submitted by the panel of assessors the National Agency for Higher Education questions the entitlement to award degrees in special education at Umeå University and the Stockholm Institute of Education. This is based on shortcomings in the qualifications of the teachers and in supervision capacity.