Bringing together researchers with different approaches to special education on ideological, theoretical and ethical levels, this book provides a multifaceted approach to practice, policy and theory to foster dialogue and meaningful discussion towards best practices in special education.
Chapters explore key themes such as the nature and identity of special education, the differences at both local and national levels between special and inclusive education practices, and the issue of contested terminology, acknowledging how a lack of consensus can dilute meaning or cause confusion within different educational settings. Case study chapters report from a rich wealth of international settings such as Norway, Nepal, and Denmark, using research gathered from autoethnographies, qualitative interviews, and questionnaires from primary, secondary and higher educational contexts.
Demonstrating how different perspectives can support organised and more coherent special education that benefits a diversity of children and young people, both socially and academically, this book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of inclusion and special education, childhood education, and education policy and politics.
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
Dialogues in special education
Øyvind Ibrahim Marøy Snipstad, Anne Lindblom, Kristina Brodal Syversen and Bente Hvidsten.
Theme 1: Contested identities and terminologies in special education
1. How to understand special education: Academics’ undestanding of their field
Rune Hausstätter and Bente Hvidsten
2. Inclusion in segregated education?
Sunniva Rogstad Hegvik and Kristina Brodal Syversen
3. The value of empathy when facing complex special education problems
Roar Stokken, Antonio Burgos-Garcia and Torhild Høydalsvik
4. Critical perspectives on the paradoxes of special needs education in Norway
Natallia Hanssen
5. The meaning of care: How is caring understood, framed and communicated in special education
Øyvind Ibrahim Marøy Snipstad and Kjersti Wessel Jevne
6. Contested terminology: Moving towards vagueness
Kristian Myre
Theme 2: Special education practices, policies, and legislations
7. Coloniality and the implementation of inclusion in Nepal
Ram Chandra Giri, Birendra Raj Pokharel, Rune Hausstatter
8. Vested interests - A parent/researcher/teacher’s view of the worlds of special and inclusion
Jonathan Rix
9. Pupils’ perspectives on inclusion in ordinary school within a Danish context – being and belonging
Christina Strandholdt Andersen
10. Challenges regarding Ukrainian students in five European countries
Vibeke Solbue and Bente Hvidsten
11. A multi-voiced auto-ethnographic reflection on the doble education track in higher education.
Anne Lindblom, Emily MacPherson, Jon-Are Masternes and Idun Kristine Ulateig
12. When strength becomes a problem: Misrecognizing giftedness in inclusive schooling
Hedi Harju-Luukainen, Susanne Garvis and Jonna Kangas
Conclusion:
Navigating contested perspectives in special education: Promoting dialogue between different positions for the benefit of students in education
Øyvind Ibrahim Marøy Snipstad and Bente Hvidsten
About the Author :
Øyvind Ibrahim Marøy Snipstad is Associate Professor in Special Education, University of Inland Norway.
Bente Isabell Borthne Hvidsten is Associate Professor in Special Education, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and University of Inland Norway
