Rangstrand Hjort, Sarah (2020). Students in need of sloyd? - About the sloyd subject’s abilities to meet students in need of support. (Elever i behov av slöjd? - Om slöjdämnets förutsättningar att möta elever i behov av stöd). Master’s degree in special education, 120p, Department of School Development and Leadership, Faculty of Education and Society, Malmo University. The sloyd subject offers to some extent a different way of learning compared to the more theoretical subjects. The process and the assignments in the work become more visible as it is performed working with physical material, it also engages the student since the education often is based on the student's personal ideas and expressions. The question is if sloyd as a subject has other opportunities to meet students in need of support, and if so, what could be the reasons for it? The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze how the teaching of sloyd meets students in need of support and what abilities the sloyd subject has in order to create a accessible learning environment. The questions of the study are; How do sloyd teachers, special educators and principals reason about the sloyd subject's abilities to meet students in need of support? How are the local conditions for meeting students in need of support within the sloyd subject described? Researching sloyd as a subject requires the inclusion of research in other areas, since sloyd is still a relatively unexplored field. This study contributes to deepening the understanding of the conditions of the sloyd subject from a special educational perspective. The empirical data is based on 14 semi-structured interviews with sloyd teachers, special educators and principals at five different schools. These three occupational categories have been chosen since they probably are the ones that are best suited to answer the questions of the study. The empiric data has been analyzed based on Engeström's (1987) activity theory. The result of the study shows that sloyd as a subject in some ways has specific abilities to meet students in need of support. The smaller groups create opportunities that make it easier to meet the students in the education, it also helps creating a meaningful relationship. The practical parts of the work together with the visible physical result provide a confirmation that the given assignment has been performed. From an activity theory perspective, however, a clarification of the teaching is needed in order to find strategies to meet these students together with other colleagues at the school. Course of events and mechanisms at other levels also affect the possibilities of sloyd as a subject. Partly through the internal culture at the school, where sloyd easily falls into the background and partly through the national governance that tends to reduce the sloyd’s specific abilities and opportunities. This study, to illuminate the subject of sloyd based on the abilities to meet students in need of support, could help bringing these angles together and steer them in the direction of a school context. The study also helps to show factors that both enable and hinder the sloyd subject's abilities to meet students in need of support.