Prior to the advent of the new democratic political dispensation in 1994, South African education had laboured under racially motivated discriminatory practices of active exclusion of the majority of learners. The authoritarian system located educational problems in the perceived deficiencies of the learner rather than in the repressive, top-down, non-participative, unreflective and uninclusive practices of the prevailing educational orthodoxy of the time. After 1994, the broader reconceptualisation of South African education sought to redress the imbalances of the past by creating equal opportunities for all learners, irrespective of race or creed. However, the difficult conundrum was how such a complex systemic change could be driven by teachers who had not only been trained in a heavily segregated educational system but formed part of it. Therefore, the aim of the thesis was to determine how teachers conceptualised inclusive teaching, explore the teaching practices that were believed to be effective in promoting inclusion in the South African secondary classrooms, and determine how they could be developed. The two-dimensional research study firstly took the form of a qualitative collaborative action research project conducted with a team of fifteen teachers at a single South African secondary school. The project was non-positivistic, critical, emancipatory and allowed the participants jointly to define the constructs of inclusive education, inclusive teaching and inclusive class; to identify practices of inclusion through observation; to adopt other practices in their classes; to determine the effect of such practices on inclusive teaching and learning; and finally to draw conclusions about the specific practices that were clearly effective in the context of their school. Secondly, an inductive analytical framework was used by the researcher to determine the theoretical contribution the study would make to the notion of developing inclusive teaching practices and determining the way this could be achieved within the South African school context. Data were collected through a series of meetings, participant observations, focus-group interviews, and one-on-one semi-structured interviews during the action-research stages of planning, action and reflection. Limitations were the teacher-researchers' lack of experience in conducting research and the limited time the research team had to complete the research tasks. The findings indicate that, at the time of the research, the conceptualisations of inclusive teaching and inclusive pedagogy were varied and continued to be influenced by the former special-needs education system. Moreover, the findings show that, while the inclusive practices identified by the teachers in this study are popular in the international literature, they need to be contextualised in and made relevant to the South African situation. However, it is clear that the teachers' experience of participating in the action-research process had raised their awareness of the importance of inclusive teaching, promoted a sense of emancipation, and held out the prospect of successful and possibly lasting change. These findings clearly imply that the reconceptualisation of inclusive pedagogy should always take place within a specific context, and that South African teachers in particular should form communities of inquiry to reflect on and develop their inclusive practices. The study has captured the essence of inclusion within the South African school context and has identified areas that need further research, for example the impact of different cultural beliefs on both teachers and learners in relation to inclusion. In conclusion, the study has demonstrated the unique contribution of action research in promoting continuous reflection, revision and intervention as indispensable procedures in the process of improving inclusive teaching and learning.

In recent years there has been an increased focus on the concept inclusion within the area of pedagogic research. This has led to recommendations that it’s better to give pedagogical support within the regular schoolroom, rather than placing pupils with different abilities and needs to another classroom. There are studies that suggest that placing pupils in remedial classes may have negative consequences for those pupils. It is said that it can be an ineffective and expensive way of giving pedagogical support and that the pupils in remedial classes may not be given as qualified support there as in the regular classroom. Placing pupils in remedial classes also risk effecting their self-esteem in a negative way, making them feel as though they must be in a remedial class because there is something wrong with them. Another criticism against remedial classes is that the pupil will miss out on the sense of community of being with the rest of the class. But being placed in a remedial class may also be a help. According to the Swedish schools inspectorate, Skolinspektionen, being placed in a remedial class can have a positive impact for some pupils regarding school results, school presence and social development. This study has an exploratory approach and aims to find out how pupils in remedial classes feel about that form of education. I’ve made semi-structured interviews with six pupils from four different schools. This study has an exploratory research approach which aims to develop hypothesizes or questions for further research. The study focuses on the pupils view of positive and negative aspects of remedial classes, how it’s different from being in the regular classroom together with the rest of the class, how the pupils would like to develop the education in the remedial classes and in the regular classroom and in what way the remedial class has affected their wellbeing in school. I’ve used PISA:s four dimensions of wellbeing as a definition of the concept wellbeing.  The result from the study show that all the pupils that I interviewed feel good about being in a remedial class. They all expressed that there’s a better and a quieter work environment in the remedial classes as opposed to the work environment in the regular classroom. They also expressed that they receive more pedagogical support in the remedial class than in the regular classroom. According to the pupils, the teachers have more time to help them there and they are given more additional adjustments in the education. Some of the pupils feel that the remedial class allows them to have a certain amount of flexibility regarding the schedule, school subjects and assignments, which they view as something positive. All the pupils expressed that they feel more satisfied with the schoolwork they do in the remedial classes than the schoolwork they do in the regular classroom. All the pupils in the study says that they are satisfied with the extent of their placement in the remedial classes. None of them are hoping to return more to the regular classroom in the future. However, almost all the pupils expressed that they like their classes and that education in the regular classroom can be good too. They appreciate talking to friends and asking them for help in class. None of the pupils talked about the other pupils in the remedial classes as something either positive or negative. In the remedial classes the pupils are more focused on their own work as opposed to joint activities together with the other pupils in the classroom. Some of the pupils missed the communal activities that usually is a natural part of school, such as to present assignments in front of the class. Although negative aspects of the remedial classes were mentioned and that most of the pupils had positive things to say about education in the regular classroom, the placement for these pupils in the remedial classes seem to have a mostly positive impact on their wellbeing in school, mostly for giving them a quiet place to work in and therefore allowing them to perform better at their schoolwork. It shall be mentioned however that the external validity can be regarded as relatively low because of the low number of participants in this study.

My diploma thesis focuses on a vital issue our society is currently dealing with and that is the problematics of a cooperation between the teacher and the teaching assistant in primary schools. A crucial element of inclusive pedagogy is primarily the close mutual cooperation between the teacher and the assistant. In the theoretical part, the thesis is divided into three sections. The first section explains main terms of the inclusive approach to pedagogy, second part mentions various means of support and the final part is dedicated to the cooperation of the teacher and the assistant. The empirical part is a research, which explores cooperation patterns between the teacher and the assistant. The research uses a qualitative approach and employs a semi-structured interview method. The aim was to try to understand various ways of how the cooperation can be maintained on a primary education level.

There are various health promotion and preventive measures that can be done in schools. Creating accessible learning environments is such a way. In this qualitative study interviews are made with professionals in School Health Teams on what they think is important in the process of creating accessible learning environments for pupils with neuropsychiatric disorders. The results show that the different perspectives as well as the way in which the different professionals work in Student Health Teams affect the orientation of the work in Student Health Teams. It affects whether the efforts become general or individual and whether they become promotion, prevention or remedial action. The Lundin model - the pyramid of change (2017) that describes a possible way of running an accessibility work has proved to be partly in line with the informants' percep-tions. I have revised the model to include the National Agency for Education's definition of ac-cessible learning environments that also include socially and educationally accessible learning environment. The results show the need to raise the level of knowledge of the staff and the need to work with their core values because they affect the way the teachers treat pupils, and the op-portunities to make the school more accessible physically, pedagogically and socially. The study also shows practical examples of ways of making the learning environment accessible and that efforts that are good for students with neuropsychiatric disorders are good for all students. Suc-cessful perspectives for the work with accessible learning environments have proven to be a re-lational perspective and a salutogenic perspective. What all occupational groups emphasized was the importance of relationships and creating structure and comprehensibility for students with neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as for all other pupils. The empirical material is grouped under three themes: Awareness and approach, Accessible learning environments - in practice and Di-lemmas and governance. These themes also show that the revised model also needs to include dynamic aspects of change work as well as dilemmas and governance. The result also shows the need to obtain views from more types of informants such as pupils, teachers, principals and other staff.

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1 ABSTRACT The diploma thesis, "Specifics of education of children from a children's home" has a theoretical and empirical character and it is focused on the education of primary school pupils who are placed in a children's home. The first, theoretical part, gathers expert knowledge related to the social and legal protection of children and selected cases where the rights of the child are not respected. It describes institutions operating in institutional and protective education, which are under control of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. It captures the negative effects of institutional education on the child. In the context of inclusive education, it characterizes a pupil from an orphanage as an endangered child with special educational needs. The purpose of the theoretical part was to describe, on the basis of professional literature, the most common obstacles that a pupil from a children's home encounters (or may face) during education and what are their causes. Outline the life situation of a pupil from an orphanage. The second, empirical part, contains the results of a qualitative survey, the aim of which was to map the supporting network of cooperating actors involved in the education of children from a particular children's home in order to find out who is involved...