This essay is my term paper submitted in partial fulfillment of my Swedish teaching degree (90hp) inthe ULV project. It is an attempt to understand the concept of inclusion and the degree to which it isbeing practiced in Swedish municipality schools. World Declaration on Education for All wasfollowed by the political acceptance of “one school for all” in educational system and debates inSweden. This was a clear expression of the democratic ambition to create an inclusive school whereevery student had a right to equal and comparable education. Yet the history of special education hasshown that the goal to implement inclusive education has been difficult to achieve. The ideology ofinclusive education is in conflict with the ground realities and the interests and values of theindividuals involved in schooling children which has led to a compromise where “one school for all”has resulted in the persistence of the traditional paradigm where segregated schooling and integrationhas been seen as the appropriate solution.Although there is space for different kinds of solutions to support children of special needs within theconcept of “one school for all”, a positive posture on the part of the personnel would help grounddemocratic inclusive schools where students are not sorted out in terms of their abilities/disabilities,rather one which is designed with pupil diversity in mind, and where the school setting is adapted tochildren´ s needs. Such an inclusive education would be one, which celebrates diversity and isgrounded on the value that differences between students are a resource rather than a problem.

Dyscalculia means that one has specific mathematical difficulties. Teachers meet students with difficulties in mathematics daily, which made it interesting to examine teachers' experiences with dyscalculia. The purpose of the study is to investigate how teachers describe their knowledge of dyscalculia and how they work with students in need of support to develop their mathematical skills. To investigate this, we have conducted a qualitative study where eight teachers were interviewed at different schools in different municipalities. The study rests on the compensatory perspective and the dilemma perspective in that the theories aim to understand the teachers' experiences around the concept of dyscalculia and how the teachers meet students with mathematical difficulties. The teachers describe that they have insufficient experience in dyscalculia but that they work a lot with concrete material. The national assessment support is used with students who are in or suspected to be in difficulties. The results show, among other things, that the teachers' experiences with dyscalculia may be because they have not been offered education or further training in dyscalculia. The teachers' perceptions are that there is more focus on reading and writing difficulties and therefore they have been offered more continuing education in that area than they received in dyscalculia.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka några elevers uppfattningar angående det stöd de fått under sin skoltid med anledning av deras läs- och skrivsvårigheter. De intervjuade eleverna i studien går i årskurs tre och årskurs fyra. Alla de intervjuade eleverna uppvisar läs- och skrivsvårigheter alternativt dyslexi. Data har samlats in genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är de tre specialpedagogiska perspektiven: det kompensatoriska, det kritiska och dilemmaperspektivet. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån de specialpedagogiska perspektiven genom att försöka hitta ett mönster och tema i de intervjuade elevernas svar. I resultatet framkommer det att stödinsatserna som utformats för eleverna mestadels utgår ifrån det kompensatoriska perspektivet. Det framkommer även att elevernas uppfattningar av stöd i skolan ser olika ut. En gemensam uppfattning som de intervjuade eleverna har är att de får stöd både enskilt och i klass med anledning av deras läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Det visar sig dock i resultatet att det stöd som eleverna får inte alltid är välplanerat mellan specialläraren och läraren. Något som kommer fram i resultatet är att eleverna vill vara delaktiga i hur stödet ska se ut och var de ska få stödet. Det visar sig också i studien att stödet som ges till eleverna måste utgå ifrån varje enskild individ för att stödet ska gynna elevernas kunskapsutveckling. / The aim of this study is to examine how pupils in grades three and four perceive the support they receive with regards to their reading and writing difficulties. The theoretical framework for this study is based on the three perspectives connected to special education, namely the compensatory perspective, the critical perspective and the dilemma perspective. In order to collect data, interviews are used and the results are then categorized and analyzed by using the three perspectives connected to special education, as mentioned above. To begin with, the results indicate that the compensatory perspective was the predominant measure used when supporting pupils but it also becomes clear that pupils perceive the support they get in different ways. Moreover, all of the pupils state that they receive help connected to their reading and writing difficulties, both individually and in class. At the same time, though, it becomes clear that the collaboration between the special education teacher and the class teacher is sometimes lacking. Finally, this study shows that pupils wish to be more involved in the process of deciding the frames for the support they need. Another conclusion is that the support given has to focus on the demands and needs of each individual in order for the support to be beneficial to each pupil’s learning process.

No description available.