Special educational groups and special classes for pupils with neuropsychiatric disorders. Educational teams as learning organizations?

Project description

 The study uses a theoretical framework that focuses on learning organizations and organizational learning in order to illuminate the learning process in the educational teams.

Within the Swedish school system neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and ADHD has had an impact on the view of pupils in need of special support. Even though the schools are supposed to form their educational environments according to the concepts of inclusion and “one school for all” many schools offers special solutions for pupils with neuropsychiatric disorders. These solutions often contains of special educational classes. Over the last years, there has been an increase in pupils with neuropsychiatric diagnoses who also are in need of special support. The educational teams have an important role in preventing special classes of becoming repositories of pupils instead of learning environments and therefore the learning processes in the teams needs to be scrutinized. The aim of the upcoming thesis is to create an understanding and knowledge of how special educational classes for pupils with neuropsychiatric diagnoses are justified, organized, developed, and maintained. The focus in the research project is the educational teams in special educational settings.

The study uses a theoretical framework that focuses on learning organizations and organizational learning. The framework generates opportunities for the creation of an analysing tool that can be used to examine if the teams are to be seen as learning organizations. The framework is crucial when it comes to analysing the teams learning process, though it focus to reveal collective learning processes. These learning processes can enlighten what may prevent or enable the development of a learning organization.  To clarify if the educational teams functions as learning organizations is of importance when it comes to the understanding of how and why special educational settings functions the way they do. The research data contain of in depth interviews with members of the educational teams. The interviews consist of themes in order to illuminate the learning process that occurs in the teams.