European Educatiuona Research Journal, Volume 2, Number 2, 2003

Transcription

1 European Educatiuona Research Journal, Volume 2, Number 2, 2003 Differentiation, Special Education and Equality: a longitudinal study of selfconcepts and school careers of students in difficulties and with or without special education support experiences INGEMAR EMANUELSSON Göteborg University, Sweden ABSTRACT The main aims of the article are to analyse how school and learning careers of students with special education support during their compulsory schooling differ from those judged not in need of such support. Choice of study programmes, success in upper secondary schooling, and schools grading of learning in compulsory school are focused upon. Patterns of post-secondary school careers are of special interest. Determined needs of special support are related to individual student characteristics as well as teaching needs of differentiation and educational demands. The database used is from approximately 8000 Swedish students, born in 1982 and followed from school start-up through post-secondary school to the age of 19. Allocation of special education resources is found more clearly related to school needs of differentiation than to individual student characteristics. The amount and kind of special education support are also related to self-confidence and students choice of and success in post-secondary school programmes. Conclusively, most of an individual student s education career possibilities are determined early, often in the compulsory school. Such patterns are related to the overruling aim of inclusive education in a school for all. More proactive roles for support teachers are discussed. Background Some Facts about the Swedish School System The relevant parts of the Swedish school system in this study are, first, the nine-year obligatory comprehensive school (grundskolan), which often is talked 245

2 Ingemar Emanuelson about as the one school for all. About 1.5% of all children, most of them with intellectual disabilities, belong to special schools, although most often attend classes locally in regular schools. These students are not included in the followup study reported on here. After compulsory school has been completed, there is the three year upper secondary school (gymnasieskolan), as a rule including students from 16 to 19 years of age. Although this school is a voluntary choice, it is more or less obligatory, as there are very few alternatives for the youngsters to choose. Therefore, almost all today c. 98% start upper secondary schooling, most of them directly after compulsory school, some later within a four-year period. Studies at upper secondary school are organised in a great number of National Programmes, divided into two groups academic and vocationally oriented. There are also some special programmes, as a rule organised in relation to special conditions in local communes or districts and chosen by quite small proportions of applicants. All National Programme examinations qualify for further studies at university or college. About 50% of the students on a national basis choose one of the two academic programmes, Science and Social Science. Even if every student has the right to chose according to their interest and will, not all will be accepted on their first choice, or accepted at all. They have to be qualified, which means that they must have at least passed in Swedish, English, and mathematics from compulsory school. Those who do not qualify are taken to the Individual Programme (IP), as well as those students who cannot manage in studies started at National Programmes. The aim of IP teaching is, mainly, to help the students qualify for one of the National Programmes. The IP has become the third biggest programme c. 20% of the age cohort after the two dominating Science and Social Science programmes in terms of proportion of students in most communes and school districts. The variation in IP student proportions is quite large between different upper secondary schools, as well as school districts, and is increasing. Previous Studies on Special Education Support on the Same 1982 Cohort Sample In previous studies, the 1982 cohort sample was followed up through grade 6 age 12 of the compulsory school, focusing mainly on the role of different kinds and ways of organising special education support (Emanuelsson & Persson, 1997; Persson, 1998; special education support is the most relevant translation of the Swedish specialpedagogiskt stöd). In Persson (1998), the followup studies also were completed with more intensive studies on special education support and its consequences in a number of school settings. Of special interest are findings showing a great variation in reasons behind student selection to special education measures. Of course, some individual characteristics, like certain disabilities, were identified, but more evident were different context-related conditions in the regular education and teaching 246

3 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY settings. The picture turned out to be rather confusing in many respects. At the same time, the most common and strongest loaded individual factors related to being appointed to special education or not were social background and gender followed by intellectual ability. The most common reasons reported and found in school settings were difficulties in reading and mathematics as well as emotional disturbances causing problems in regular teaching. Students special education careers started as a rule early in their schooling, and close to one-fifth of the students had some kind of special education support every school year. Many of them had that kind of support for just one year, but there were also those who had support for several years, some with interruptions for one or more years. Up to grade 6, the proportion of students having had some kind of special education for one year or more added up to c. 35%. Further, the special educational measures taken were seldom thoroughly evaluated by the schools. One conclusion from the studies was that special education must be understood and seen as one part of educational differentiation mainly organisational taking place in the regular teaching. It was reasonable to say that the overall concluding picture showed that every local school setting identified its own needs for special education support to an astonishingly equal degree seen over the very great number of settings. With a slight exaggeration, it looked like every school class teacher having a certain amount of support available for her/his pupils also used it. This means that support resources were allocated in relation to student variability in preconditions for learning in each specific group, which was used as frame of reference. It is no wonder, then, that the summarised picture tends to be confusing, as there are great variations between school classes in student qualities and preconditions for learning and coping with school teaching (Persson, 1998). One consequence is that special education students in the whole cohort sample show up as a very heterogeneous group in many respects. This is, of course, important to remember, when looking into results from further follow-up studies of student careers in secondary and upper secondary school years. The students of this same cohort sample have now been followed through their continued schooling, and what is reported here are studies focusing first hand on special education students and their school careers and experiences up to the age of 19. Aims of the Study Students experiences and achievement results in compulsory school are important preconditions for further educational career possibilities (Emanuelsson, 1974; Emanuelsson et al, 2001). In this sense, the consequences of kinds and amount of special education support must be looked for in longterm perspectives. As, for instance, achievements in compulsory school qualify 247

4 Ingemar Emanuelson for upper secondary school programmes, it is interesting to relate special education experiences to further schooling careers. The main aims are to study and analyse if and in what ways school and learning careers of students with different kinds of special education support during their compulsory schooling differ from those not judged in need of such support. Especially, choice of study programmes, success in upper secondary schooling, and schools grading of learning in compulsory school are focused upon and related to further possibilities. Patterns of upper secondary school careers as well as drop-out problems are of special interest. Determined needs of special education support will be analysed in relation to individual student characteristics as well as to teachers needs for differentiation. Students reported estimations of different kinds of selfconcepts and abilities for school subjects and successful learning are used as independent variables in the analyses. Previous Research There is a paucity of longitudinal studies of individual school careers over more than 10 years. Not least in special education research, this is a fact often recognised as well as complained about. The need for studies of long-term effects and consequences of different kinds of special education support given to students has long been expressed (Österling, 1967; Emanuelsson, 1974), and has been reiterated in a recently published overview of special education research (Emanuelsson et al., 2001). Many reported studies from upper secondary schools relate student achievement results to students earlier experiences in compulsory school, e.g. special education or other kinds of support. The same design appears in drop-out studies. But this has usually been done in a retrospective way and not as longitudinal follow-up studies of the same students. However, most research on student difficulties in upper secondary careers shows that they are related to previous experiences of difficulties and problems as well as to being in need of special support during compulsory school years. This is especially so in studies on different kinds of school difficulties and drop-out, and a common result is a clear relation between having had special education support and negative experiences in upper secondary school. A recent study by Hultqvist (2001) from upper secondary school is of special interest here. She observed and interviewed groups of students belonging to the Individual Programme (IP), i.e. students who did not qualify for the National Programmes or who had left these programmes because of difficulties in following the teaching there. The results showed many similarities with studies of special education settings in previous studies in the compulsory school (Haug, 1998). Hultqvist s discussion of her results is of great relevance for the present study. Therefore, some references and 248

5 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY quotations (all translations from Swedish are done here by the present author) from her will be presented here. Many of Hultqvist s students had earlier experiences from special education in small groups, which in a way gave them greater opportunities to receive individual support. But, at the same time, the students had been referred to these special groups on conditions and judgements decided upon by the school rather than the students themselves. The same was seen in the referral to IP groups at upper secondary school, even if this is seen to be a result of students own choices: If the school assesses these students as low achieving by referring them to the Individual Programme (IP), who, if not the school, can change that assessment? This kind of problem ought to be central for understanding the IP students relations to the school. (p. 188) An overriding aim for special education support as well as for teaching in IP groups is to help students qualify for teaching in regular groups or programmes. But the construction of the Individual Programme is done within the framework of a hierarchical order. As is shown in recent school statistics, the IP very soon became established as a place for so-called weak students. This leads to the interesting question, what kind of conceptualisation lies behind the establishment of the IP as an educational policy and its realisation in local school settings? Hultqvist found, in accord with other education sociology studies and theories, that the school takes the right to interpretation and decisions about what is to be compensated for in students performances and qualification. As a consequence, IP-placed students feel specially treated and in some sense segregated as deviant. What kinds of value-based judgements and diagnoses of students shortcomings and difficulties the placement is based on are often hidden or seen mostly as a technical matter. Such processes are referred to as segregating integration with reference to Haug (1998) for students judged not qualified for the national (regular) programmes in the upper secondary schools. Hultqvist concludes: In an inclusive integration no student should be stigmatised or excluded. Critics of the compensatory solution, Haug among others, point to the consequences of students being placed in stigmatised and marginalised positions. Compensations can be shown to be both stigmatising and unrealistic. They are stigmatising by special treatment, the fundamental idea of compensation. The variant of integration that has become real through the reform of upper secondary school is the segregating one. The construction of the Individual Programme is an evident example of a compensatory solution. Its basic foundation of values is the individual effect and achievement level. (p. 192) Hultqvist concludes, again with reference to Haug s analyses, that one can notice clear relations between social justice, special education support and/or Individual Programmes and education policies and politics. Studies of special 249

6 Ingemar Emanuelson education as well as of Individual Programme education cannot fruitfully be done outside the regular education contexts within which they are organised and implemented. This is especially pertinent for studying the consequences for students of being referred to such compensatory measures. The interpretations provided by Hultqvist can in many respects be used as a kind of guideline for the present study. We must expect significant heterogeneity in later student careers through secondary and upper secondary school years. There are very good reasons for being especially observant of variability within groups, instead of concentrating exclusively on averages, in comparisons between special education groups. This is presumed to be important even if the reported results already show that the main part of the group of students selected for special education support is identified very early in compulsory school. This is also in agreement with results reported by Hultqvist a great proportion of the students in her Individual Programme groups had had special education support during their compulsory school years. Another recently published study (Svensson & Reuterberg, 2002) on changes over a five-year period in upper secondary student career patterns in Sweden is also of interest here. It is part of the ongoing longitudinal cohort sample studies at Göteborg University, dealt with above. Two cohort samples, born in 1977 and 1982 respectively, are compared, with special focus on upper secondary school experiences. The second cohort sample is the same as used in our study reported here. Svensson & Reuterberg found some interesting differences between the two samples of students beginning their upper secondary school studies in 1993 and 1998 respectively. Even if they did not take into account either special education support experiences or Individual Programme groups in their comparisons, their findings are of interest as background for our own study. Drop-out rates from all the National Programmes increased over the five years, from 17-19% in the first to 23-35% in the second cohort. This increase was greater for males than for females and less evidently so in lower social groups. Noteworthy also, is that there was almost no relation found between the increase in drop-out rates and ability test results at the age of 13. Further, an increasing amount of students reported that they thought studying was difficult, but this increase was almost the same for those who graduated as for drop-outs. Another very clear tendency was towards higher amounts of stress felt by students as well as increasing numbers of students reporting difficulties in concentration on schoolwork together with a somewhat lower proportion saying that they got enough help from teachers. Students who dropped out reported greater difficulties, such as following the teaching pace. Taken together, the reported comparative results suggest that studying at the upper secondary school had become more demanding over the five years. It is reasonable to think that such a change will be especially relevant for students with special education experiences from compulsory school years, i.e. the group of students focused on in the study reported here. 250

7 Methods DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY The study reported here is part of an extensive research programme over a long time period. Most of the studies included were longitudinally designed and based on a sequence of follow-up studies on large representative samples of ,000students from every fifth age cohort born in 1967 and onwards. The cohort sample used here consists of c students born in They have been followed since their third year (age 10) in the Swedish comprehensive school and through their studies in the upper secondary school, which most of them left as 19 year-olds in the year This article is based on ongoing work, and results presented are to be seen as preliminary and not fully analysed according to plans. These results are also to be seen more as examples of trends and patterns, rather than fully worked through and completed. Therefore, results are presented mainly in simple cross-tabulations, while more comprehensive regression analyses in combination with structural equation modelling, still in a premature phase of ongoing work, will be reported later. As the aim of our study is related very strongly to long-term consequences of special education support in individual education careers, most of the tables presented here are based on grouping of students according to amount of support given. It is important to take into account that the measure used is quite a rough one, far from precise and clear in content dimensions. As stated earlier, the reasons for allocation of, as well as kinds of, special education measures taken may vary considerably for different students as well as in different educational settings. This means, of course, that relations reported and analysed cannot be seen as evaluation of effects of special education given. Rather, they will be seen as consequences of identified difficulties in regular school and teaching. Such difficulties have been individualised in the sense that a special treatment has been judged necessary for certain identified sometimes diagnosed individual students with difficulties or with special needs. When comparing groups of such students with others, not marked out and/or separated from regular groups for longer or shorter periods, relations found in studied respects and conditions will be interpreted mostly in terms of possible consequences of that way of understanding of and working with recognised difficulties. The main aim for taking measures and giving support is to help in a curing way, and long-term follow-up studies will at least give some hints about in what ways this leads to success or its opposite in terms of student experiences in later school careers. Earlier studies have shown that the proportion of students having had special education support during longer or shorter parts of their compulsory schooling is quite high, at least 35%, and that it has been so for almost 40 years in Swedish compulsory school (Emanuelsson et al, 2001). At the same time, the proportion per school year tends to be between 15 and 20%. All these figures are based on representative age cohort samples, and they can differ significantly between local schools and school districts. As there also are big differences between students in terms of for how long and how many periods 251

8 Ingemar Emanuelson they receive support, we have used a quantified measure in the comparisons. We have devised a scale, based on number of years students have had some kind of special education support. As the database includes such information from grades 3 to 9, this scale goes from 0 to 7 years. As the number of students having had such support for more than five years is quite small, they have been grouped together (5-7 years). The longitudinal database of the present study comprises repeatedly collected information from school registers school marks, national test results, special education support given, subject and programme choices etc. All these data have been collected almost without any missing information, which is also the case for ability test results and home background information. With respect to data used from the questionnaire study from 2001, we have to face consequences of fairly low response rates (c %), and even lower among students having had special education support. Some Preliminary Findings Allocation of Special Education Support When studying allocation of special education support to individual students in a representative sample from a whole age cohort, we found it was mainly done randomly (Emanuelsson & Persson, 1997). There were only a few and rather weak relations to common individual characteristics, maybe for gender and social background. This does not mean that such a random rule was practised in each individual school and classroom, but, rather, was a consequence of the fact that each teaching group or school class situation tended to devise its own need of defining students in need of support. The reasons for this were more related to characteristics of the teaching environment, situation and ways of organising work, than to individual abilities and/or shortcomings. One consequence of this is that the rather large proportion of students selected for special education support comprised a very heterogeneous group, if looked upon over a large number of schools and classes. In turn, this fact is likely to influence results of studies of special education students later school and learning careers, which is the aim of study here. Table I gives the proportions of students in each grade from 3 to 9 (school year) in compulsory school who had some kind of special education support. This support was given in special groups or in some other ways more or less integrated into regular teaching groups. Through grades 3 to 6, close to one in every five or six students got such support, but during the last three grades this proportion was lower, close to one in ten. The main reason for this lower proportion is found in other differentiation possibilities during secondary school years, e.g. adjusted study programmes. Another reason, although to a lesser extent, may be related to drop-out and truancy problems. 252

9 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY A third reason may be a consequence of support given in earlier grades being effective, so the student s need of special support has decreased. Grade in compulsory Proportion (%) with special school education support Table I. Proportions of students having had special education support of some kind in grades 3-9 of compulsory school (% per grade). Previous studies on the same cohort sample have shown that it is not the same students who get special education support all years. There is a kind of exchange going on over the years. Very few students have had support all seven years, and there are quite a few who have had support for just one year. The amount of support in terms of school years per student is given in Table II. Number of years with Proportion of all support students (n = 8588) Table II. The amount of special education support given in compulsory school grades 3-9. Proportions (%) of all students per number of years with support. It is, further, worthwhile noting that the proportion of students who have never had any special education support is close to two out of three, which means that as many as one out of three students have at some time been judged as in need of such support, nearly half of them only occasionally, in just one of the seven school years. At the same time, about 3% have had support of this kind for five or more of the seven years. As they are so few, they will be collapsed into one group (5-7) in all comparisons and relation studies. 253

10 Ingemar Emanuelson Relations between Amount of Special Education Support and Some Education Career Experiences and Qualities Marks given from grade 9 in compulsory school are important with respect to further education careers. A student has to have at least a pass mark in Swedish, English and mathematics in order to be accepted on one of the National Programmes at upper secondary school. A student without these marks must continue studies in these subjects in order to carry on in their education career. One often expressed aim for special education support is, therefore, to help students qualify for the pass mark. If they do not, the only way to start upper secondary school is on the Individual Programme, where students should be given help to qualify for starting the real upper secondary studies in one of the National Programmes. As commented on earlier, there are in this sense great similarities between special education support and Individual Programmes, as shown by, for example, Hultqvist (2001). The number of years of special education is related to marks in mathematics from grade 9 (Table III). There are some differences between the pattern shown in Table III, used here as an illustrative example, and the corresponding tables with marks from other school subjects. However, the main aspects are more similar than different. Mark value in Number of years with special education support mathematics Total Not Passed (IG) Passed (G) Good (VG) Very Good (MVG) Total n Table III. Marks in mathematics from grade 9 in compulsory school related to number of years with special education support in grades 3-9 (%). Practically all students without the qualifying pass or higher marks have had special education support for longer or shorter periods of their compulsory schooling. The proportions Not Passed are not very different between students without such support and those with support for just one year. The difficulties for students with longer periods of support to reach the qualification level have been too great to be compensated for, which indicates that the expected aims have not been met. This is the case for about 20% percent of the special education students in this respect. Even if the correlation 254

11 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY between marks and amount of special education support are similar in other school subjects as well, this does not mean that it is the same students not qualifying in all subjects. Thus, the proportion of students not qualified for studies on National Programmes having Not Passed in one or more of the three basic school subjects are even higher than shown in Table III. Although the main pattern may be expressed as the more special education support, the lower marks, it is important to recognise the great variation in all groups compared (Table III). This is a good picture of the rather complex preconditions and other aspects characterising special education support and its consequences. As referred to previously, this is relevant for individual as well as contextual levels. One consequence of the clear relation between having received special education support and marks in school subjects is that the possibilities for free choice of upper secondary school programme are more restricted for special education students than for others. Many of these students are more or less forced to choose Individual Programmes, or they may choose not going to the upper secondary school at all. Today, this latter choice is very restricted, mostly because of conditions in the labour market. It is very hard, not to say impossible, to find a job without upper secondary school training. As can be seen in Table IV, which presents relations between amount of special education support and choice of upper secondary school programmes, the proportions of special education students going to Individual Programmes are much higher than for other students. The No information row in Table IV can mainly be interpreted as proportions of students in the different groups not going to upper secondary school directly from compulsory school. These proportions are higher for special education students, and especially so for those with such support for many years. Programme chosen Number of years with special education support Total Science Social Science Vocational training Specially designed Individual Programme (IV) N No information 3% 6% 9% 12% 12% 19% 5% Table IV. Choice of upper secondary school programme related to number of years with special education support in grades 3-9 in compulsory school (percent). 255

12 Ingemar Emanuelson Of all students going to Individual Programme groups, at least half of them have had special education support in compulsory school (Table V). Again, it is important to note the signficant variation within groups. Special education in compulsory school Proportion choosing Individual Programme/grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Proportions of all IP students having had support in respective grade Table V. Special education support in certain grades of compulsory school related to choice of Individual Programme at upper secondary school and proportions of all students (n = 669; 8.2% of all) making that choice (%). As can further be seen in Table IV, choice of programme is clearly related to the amount of special education support in compulsory school. Vocational training and Individual Programmes are most often chosen by students having had the highest levels of support. Even if studies on the Vocational Training Programmes also qualify for later university or college studies, they are seen as less academic and theoretical than the Science and Social Science Programmes. The latter two are the academically high-status programmes and most common as students first choice in the whole age cohort. It may be questioned whether the Individual Programme really is a choice made by the students. As mentioned earlier, it is more of a forced choice for students who are not qualified for any of the National Programmes. The higher numbers of former special education students choosing the Individual Programme must therefore be seen as an indication of these students facing difficulties in qualifying, a fact which was also illustrated in their marks from grade 9 in compulsory school. Furthermore, much lower proportions of special education students than others were accepted on their first choice programmes. In this sense, the information given in Table V is interesting, and especially so the proportions given from the lower grades 3-6. They clearly indicate that difficulties in school, leading to less chance of achieving qualifying marks and real free choices of programmes, are often identified very early in compulsory school. A common measure taken by the school, then, is some kind of special education to try to increase students chances of qualifying. The effect of this, as can be seen from the given data, is questionable. For a large proportion of students, the early identified difficulties lead to a special education career in many respects characterised as an alternative to regular education. This career tends to continue in upper secondary school with the 256

13 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY Individual Programme, which is the only alternative left for students not qualified (Table V). This seems to be clearly in agreement with results from Hultqvist s (2001) observations referred to earlier. The Individual Programme groups and their work had much in common with characteristics found from studies of special education groups. If adding the proportions in the No information row in Table IV, interpreted as mainly meaning dropping out from school and/or not going to upper secondary schools, the results are even more alarming. The alternative special education career continues in an upper secondary schooling characterised by Hultqvist as segregated integration (cf. also Haug, 1998). There are at least two very important reasons for being cautious in interpreting the results above in terms of effect of special education teaching. One is the large variation in almost all groups compared, which means that there are many exceptions from even clear patterns and relations. For instance, special education students tend to be represented in almost all cells in the tables presented, and this can be seen as successful outcomes in many cases. Another reason is the fact that the picture of recruitment to special education support also shows great variations, and is often reported as confusing. This, in turn, is a consequence of conditions characterising regular education as steering the allocation processes and thereby also the preconditions for special education teaching as such. Student education careers must be seen as contextbound, in addition to individual-bound, through education policy and teaching conditions and perspectives. The importance of that can also be understood from Table VI, which gives information on student experiences of problems with getting help from teachers in the compulsory school. It should be noted that the information given in Table VI, as well as that in Table VII on self-reported school problems, is taken from the questionnaire study in 2001, at the age of 19. The response rate was low, c. 65%, in this study, and even lower for special education groups, as low as 45% in the 5-7 years group. The answers given cannot, therefore, be seen as representative. It is reasonable to suspect that the pictures presented in the tables are more positive than they would have been with higher response rates. However, this taken into account, the available information is still of interest as information about students school situation. Here just a couple of aspects will be presented as preliminary examples of results from ongoing analyses. Some questions dealt with experiences from the three secondary years of compulsory school. This means that the 19 year-old students have answered the questions in a retrospective way according to their memories three years later. The general pattern is that the greater amount of special education received, the more common were different kinds of reported difficulties and problems. With this in mind, it is of interest to look at answers about experience of the possibilities of getting help from teachers during the last three years of compulsory school related to amount of special education support in that school (Table VI). 257

14 Ingemar Emanuelson Problem experience No problems No greater problems Great problems Number of years with special education support Total N Table VI. Experiences of problems with getting help from teachers during the last three years of compulsory school related to number of years with special education support in grades 3-9 (%). The special education students tell about greater problems with getting help from teachers than the other students. This is even more often the case among those who had had many years of support, many of whom ought to have also had support during the three years in question. Of course, so far it cannot be concluded from the proportions reported if the problems in getting help are related to special education or regular teachers. It is also unknown how the students not responding have experienced their situation. In response to another question, the students have reported difficulties with understanding teachers explanations and with following the pace in teaching. Response patterns on these data are very similar to what is seen in Table VI. There are quite weak relations between students having had special education support and their chances of qualifying for acceptance on National Programmes. Qualification for those programmes is the main aim of Individual Programme studies. Help and support in these studies concentrates on basic subject matter knowledge in order to achieve the pass mark. The aim is to achieve this as soon as possible. The time for students to be on the Individual Programme is therefore supposed to be relatively short. In the questionnaire study students reported on the length of time they spent on Individual Programmes. The results are difficult to analyse, because of the very low response rates, and also because of no information being available so far about whether the students went to National Programme studies or whether they dropped out of school. This will be further analysed later. From the information available, though, there is a clear tendency for longer periods on the IP to be related to greater amounts of special education support during compulsory school years. 258

15 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY Presented statement I often have difficulties concentrating on lessons Number of years with special education support Total I often feel stressed I often have difficulties following pace of lessons I get enough help from teachers in schoolwork I get help with schoolwork at home when I need to n Table VII. Agreements in questionnaire statements about upper secondary school related to number of years with special education support in grades 3-9 in compulsory school (%). The last example of results is a kind of summarising judgements made by the students in the questionnaire study at age 19. They have indicated agreement or not with a number of given statements about studying in upper secondary school. The results are presented as proportions of agreement in relation to amount of special education support in compulsory school (Table VII). Again, the very low response rates must be taken into account. It is reasonable to expect that many students with the greatest difficulties were among those not responding. Table VII gives a rather mixed picture of reported experiences from upper secondary school studies. Clear patterns cannot be seen in the relations between statement agreements and amount of special education support. One reason for this may very well be a consequence of the low response rates in all groups, and especially so for students with high levels of special education. As reported previously by Svensson & Reuterberg (2002), there are very high proportions of students, in all groups, telling of feelings of stress. Here the proportions tend to be somewhat less high for students with special education experiences, which may be due to studying on less demanding programmes or Individual Programmes. There are also quite high proportions of agreement to the statement about concentration difficulties in schoolwork, and more so among special education students. With regard to getting enough help from teachers, there are almost no differences between the groups. At the same time, it may be of interest to note that no more than two students out of three agree to that statement. All together, the information given in Table VII is interesting in many respects, and it would be worthwhile analysed it further and relate it to other measures of student educational careers. 259

16 Ingemar Emanuelson Concluding Remarks This article reports some preliminary results from ongoing studies and analyses. Even so, it is out of the question that long-term longitudinal studies of student careers can be used to give conclusive evidence on the consequences of special education support for those individuals that are judged to be in need of such support. This is the case not just for so-called effect studies of special education teaching, but also for questions about the relation between regular education and different needs of special education. As has been shown in many recent studies, special education cannot be understood only as a means for supporting individual students. In addition, special education responds to needs and motives within regular education, often referred to as needs for differentiation (Emanuelsson & Persson, 1997; Emanuelsson et al, 2001). The results presented here confirm this interpretation, indicating that special education teaching may be more successful in solving teaching differentiation problems in regular settings than individual student problems. One aspect of this is the similarities found between characteristics of special education settings and Individual Programme groups. The need for differentiation in upper secondary school teaching may be met by referring less qualified students to the Individual Programme, instead of giving special education teaching support in traditional ways like in compulsory school. Interestingly, the proportion of students going to Individual Programmes tends to be very similar to the corresponding proportions each year referred to special education teaching in compulsory school. A clearly documented characteristic of students education careers stands out as both interesting and challenging for future school planning and policy. Student difficulties in following regular teaching are as a rule identified and recognised very early in their school careers. Even if the reasons for such difficulties differ considerably, not only in relation to individual characteristics, but even more so in relation to regular education characteristics, the measures taken to try to solve the problems tend to be the same, i.e. special education teaching. For a great proportion of those identified, sometimes diagnosed, students, this becomes the start of a special education career, which in many respects can be seen as an alternative to what is seen as normal. This has for long been interpreted as special education consequences in the compulsory school, but in our studies we see a continuation in a very similar way in upper secondary school. One reason for this is that this officially voluntary school today has become almost obligatory for all students. As Hultqvist (2001) points out, this school is organised with two kinds of programmes, National Programmes with certain qualification demands for acceptance, and Individual Programmes for students not qualifying. Already the preliminary results reported here from our longitudinal studies point to the risk for students in different kinds of difficulties to continue an alternative education career leading to very restricted qualifications in even longer perspectives than the 12 years in the school for all. The results can in many ways be summarised by 260

17 DIFFERENTIATION, SPECIAL EDUCATION AND EQUALITY the expression used by Hultqvist, segregating integration. This must be seen as a challenge for further school reform, especially so for the upper secondary school in Sweden. References Emanuelsson, I. (1974) Utbildningshandikapp i långtidsperspektiv. Stockholm: Lärarhögskolan. Emanuelsson, I. & Persson, B. (1997) Who is Considered to Be in Need of Special Education: why, how and by whom? European Journal of Special Needs Education, 12, pp Emanuelsson, I., Persson, B. & Rosenqvist, J. (2001) Forskning inom det specialpedagogiska området en kunskapsöversikt. Stockholm: Skolverket. Haug, P. (1998) Pedagogiskt dilemma: Specialundervisning. Stockholm: Skolverket. Hultqvist, E. (2001) Segregerande integrering. En studie av gymnasieskolans individuella program. Studies in Educational Sciences 38. Stockholm: HLS Förlag. Persson, B. (1998) Den motsägelsefulla specialpedagogiken. Specialpedagogiska rapporter, nr 14. Göteborgs universitet: Institutionen för specialpedagogik. Svensson, A. & Reuterberg, S-E. (2002) Vad har hänt i gymnasieskolan under de senaste fem åren? En jämförelse mellan elever som påbörjade sina studier 1993 respektive IPD-rapporter Nr 2002:09. Göteborgs universitet: Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik. Österling, O. (1967) The Efficacy of Special Education. A Comparison of Classes for Slow Learners. Studia Scientiae Paedagogicae Upsaliensia, VII. Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget/Norstedts. INGEMAR EMANUELSSON is Professor Emeritus in Special Education, formerly a special education teacher. His main research interests are preconditions and consequences of special education, especially long-term effects on individual education careers; issues of inclusive education; evaluation through longitudinal studies. Correspondence: Ingemar Emanuelsson, Göteborg University, Department of Education, PO Box 300, SE Göteborg, Sweden (ingemar.emanuelsson@ped.gu.se). 261