Short description:

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.

Long description:

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

1. Inclusion in segregated education?

Kristina Brodal Syversen and Sunniva Rogstad Hegvik

1. The value of empathy when facing complex special education problems

Roar Stokken, Antonio Burgos-Garcia and Torhild Høydalsvik

1. Critical perspectives on the paradoxes of special needs education in Norway

Natallia Hanssen

1. The meaning of care: How is caring understood, framed and communicated in special education

Øyvind Ibrahim Marøy Snipstad and Kjersti Jevne

1. Contested terminology: Moving towards vagueness

Kristian Myre

Theme 2: Special education practices, policies, and legislations

1.  Coloniality and the implementation of inclusion in Nepal

Ram Chandra Giri, Birendra Raj Pokharel

1. Vested interests - A parent/researcher/teacher’s view of the worlds of special and inclusion

Jonathan Rix

1. Pupils’ perspectives on inclusion in ordinary school within a Danish context – being and belonging

Christina Strandholdt Andersen

1. Challenges regarding Ukrainian students in five European countries

Vibeke Solbue and Bente Hvidsten

1. 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

1. 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