The aim of this symposium is to display and critically reflect on the current development of approaches and methods in specialeducational research, policy and practice. The symposium is also part of two 2.5 credit doctoral courses.
This is the third international symposium on Special Education at Umeå University. In order to strengthen researcher-school practitioner collaborative pathways, school-based practitioners are encouraged to resister and attend the first day of this symposium. The second day is research focused and the number of attendees is limited. The symposium is also part of a 2.5 credit doctoral course in special education. The program will be continuously updated, and the registration will open soon.
Background and content for the symposium
In what ways can we strengthen networking, cross-national interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration, close to practice research, and stimulate the dissemination of research in the field of special education? How can we understand the relationship between methods and the articulation of special educational knowledge? The invited speakers from Sweden and other countries will help us articulate the traditions, approaches, conditions and differences between research projects conducted in cooperation between universities and schools.
For the second day of the symposium, we invite research paper submissions relating to collaborative pathways in the field of special education. We welcome contributions focusing on the development of language, writing and reading, mathematics, and research on learning disabilities.
Symposium Program Day 1
Date 19 February
The first day of the symposium will start with coffee. Before lunch, there will be one lecture and in the afternoon there will be three lectures with short breaks between each presentation. We round off the day with a short open discussion picking up on the day’s themes. The day will end with a dinner at Umeå University.
Room: information will follow (Map)
09.30-10.00 Registration and coffee/tea
10.00-10.15 Welcoming introduction
10.15-11.30 Keynote Roger Slee
11.30-12.30 Lunch
12.30-13.45 Keynote Eirini Sanoudaki
13.45-14.00 Coffee/tea break
14.00-15.15 Keynote Veerle Garrels
15.15-15.45 Coffee/tea break
15.45-17.00 Keynote Florian Kiuppis
17.00-17.15 Summing-up session
18.00 Informal mingelbuffé at the Department of Education
Symposium Program Day 2
Date 20 February
The number of participants for the second day of the symposium is severely limited. During the second day of the symposium, there will be a maximum of four parallel seminars that will be thematically or methodologically focused. Contributors will present their paper for about 10 minutes following by a 20-minute discussion of the paper. There will be short breaks between each presentation, and the day will end with a lunch at Umeå University.
Room: information will follow
08.45-09.00 Information
09.00-12.30 Parallel seminars, Coffee/tea break
12.30 Farewell
Syllabuses Doctoral courses in special education
Syllabus: Forskning, Policy och Praktik- Aktuella utvecklingstrender inom Specialpedagogik
Syllabus: Forskning, Policy och Praktik - Aktuella utvecklingstrender inom Specialpedagogik 2
Keynote Prof Roger Slee, University of Leeds, UK
BRIEF BIO
Roger Slee is a Visiting Professor at the School of Sociology and Social Policy and Centre for Disability Studies, University of Leeds. He has previously held research chairs at The University of South Australia, University of Western Australia, Goldsmiths College University of London, Victoria University and the Institute of Education UCL where he was the Chair of Inclusive Education. Roger is the former Dean of Education at Goldsmiths, The University of Western Australia and Magill. He holds an honorary chair in critical studies in education at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is currently working on major inclusive education projects in Ethiopia and Queensland. Roger is the Founding Editor of the International Journal of Inclusive Education and is on the Editorial Boards of many other journals. He has recently stepped down from being the Chair of the Board of Directors for Children and Young People with Disabilities Australia. He has worked on major inclusive education projects in Ethiopia and Queensland and advised governments and education authorities in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece, England, India, Iraq and Jordan. Roger was formerly a Deputy Director General of the Queensland Ministry of Education and Dean of Education at Goldsmiths, The University of Western Australia and Magill. He is the author a number of books, for example the book on Ethics and Inclusive Education with Gordon Tait.
SUGGESTED ARTICLES
Price, D., & Slee, R. (2020). An Australian Curriculum that includes diverse learners: the case of students with disability. Curriculum Perspectives, 41, 71-81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-021-00134-8
Slee. R., & Tait, G. (2022). Ethics and Inclusive Education: Disability, Schooling and Justice. Inclusive Learning and Educational Equity. Switzerland: Springer.
Keynote Dr Eirini Sanoudaki, Bangor University, UK
BRIEF BIO
Dr Eirini Sanoudaki is Reader in Linguistics and Bilingualism at Bangor University in Wales. She is Head of the Child Bilingualism Lab, which examines language in monolingual and bilingual speakers, focusing on children with developmental conditions. Eirini pioneered research on language development in neurodiverse Welsh-English bilingual children. She collaborates with the Down's syndrome Association and other external partners on funded projects studying language and cognitive skills in typical and atypical development and she has published extensively in the field. Eirini is passionate about the development of Doctoral researchers: she is currently Director of Postgraduate Research in her academic School, and Lead of the Linguistics and Bilingualism Pathway for the Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences. She is also Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. At Bangor, she teaches advanced courses on child language development, language disorders and bilingualism.
ABSTRACT KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Bilingualism in children with special educational needs
Children with special education needs tend to have fewer opportunities for second language learning due to fears that they would not be able to cope with dual language exposure. Are these fears justified? In this talk I will present recent developments in the field and introduce some of the work of the Child Bilingualism Lab, a body of work examining language in bilingual children with and without developmental conditions. Based in bilingual Wales, an ideal environment in which to investigate the spectrum of bilingualism in relation to the spectrum of neurodiversity, our insights help allay fears about multiple language exposure. By presenting some of the outreach undertaken by Doctoral students in the lab, I also aim to lead us into reflection on how we can effect change in our field.
SUGGESTED ARTICLES
De Valenzuela, J. S., Bird, E. K. R., Parkington, K., Mirenda, P., Cain, K., MacLeod, A. A. N., & Segers, E. (2016). Access to opportunities for bilingualism for individuals with developmental disabilities: Key informant interviews. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 32–46. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2016.05.005
Ward, R., & Sanoudaki, E. (2023). Predicting language outcomes in bilingual children with Down syndrome. Child Neuropsychology, 30(5), 760–782. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2023.2275331
Keynote Dr Veerle Garrels, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
BRIEF BIO
Dr. Veerle Garrels is professor in special education at the Department of Vocational Teacher Education at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) in Oslo, Norway. At OsloMet, Veerle teaches a postgraduate course in special needs education. She holds a doctoral degree in special education from the University of Oslo and wrote a doctoral thesis on self-determination for students with intellectual disability. Veerle recently concluded a four-year research project on the school-work transitions of youth with intellectual disability, which was funded by the Norwegian Research Council. Current research projects include a self-determination intervention for young adults with intellectual disability and their parents, a NASA Hunch project for students in vocational education, and a collaborative project with the Norwegian police academy and the National Criminal Investigation Service about people with disabilities in the legal system. She is also involved in the development of higher education studies in inclusive education at two universities in Nepal. Before entering academia, Veerle worked for 14 years with children and youth with special needs in school, residential care, and health services.
ABSTRACT KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
What does employment mean for young people with intellectual disability? Is there room for people with intellectual disability in the labour market? And how can we help prepare students with intellectual disability for future employment?
During this keynote presentation, I will present findings from a four-year research project on effective school-work transitions for young adults with intellectual disability. In this project, we used a quantitative survey to explore what 478 Norwegian employers think of hiring employees with intellectual disability and which experiences they have with doing so. Moreover, we explored ten “best case scenarios” in a qualitative case study, in order to identify the characteristics of young people and their context and what made them successful in gaining employment shortly after finishing upper secondary school.
SUGGESTED ARTICLES
Garrels, V., & Sigstad, H. M. H. (2023). Caregivers’ experiences with school–work transitions for their children with disorders of intellectual development. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 1892. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031892
Garrels, V., Sigstad, H. M. H., Wendelborg, C., & Dean, E. E. (2022). Work Opportunities and Workplace Characteristics for Employees with Intellectual Disability in the Norwegian Labour Market. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 71(5), 814–830. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2022.2150838
Keynote Prof Florian Kiuppis, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, RPTU, Germany
BRIEF BIO
Dr Florian Kiuppis is Professor of International and Comparative Special Needs Education with a focus on Inclusion at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Germany, and part-time Professor of Education with a focus on Special Education / Inclusion at NLA University College, Bergen, Norway. Florian is Immediate Past President of the Nordic Comparative and International Education Society, Leader of the Scientific Board of Special Olympics Germany and Member of the Research Collaborative of the Special Olympics Global Center for Inclusion in Education. In addition, Florian is passionate Trainer and Coach of the inclusive sport ‘Baskin’ and is currently working on a book tentatively titled Atmospheres of Inclusive Education (in German).
ABSTRACT KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Atmospheres of Inclusive Education
For the last three decades, theoretical research on the concept of inclusive education has increasingly dealt with emergent realities of participation for all in educational practice in context of shared spaces. What so far has not convincingly been conceptualised is the subjective perception of the quality of inclusive educational settings beyond what is called ‘normative individualism’, that is the consideration of persons and their bodies as objects of studies. This keynote links up with what in Neo-Phenomenology is called ‘new aesthetics’ (Gernot Böhme), borrows the notion of ‘lived bodies’ (Tonino Griffero) and introduces ‘atmosphere’ as a new concept within the philosophy of special and inclusive education.
SUGGESTED ARTICLES
Kiuppis, F. (2014). Why (not) associate the principle of inclusion with disability? Tracing connections from the start of the ‘Salamanca Process’. International journal of inclusive education, 18(7), 746-761.
Kiuppis, F. (2016). Inclusion in sport: disability and participation. Sport in Society, 21(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2016.1225882
Kiuppis, F. (2021). Disability inclusion in sport for all: Baskin as a best practice model. In Research Handbook on Sports and Society (pp. 291-306). Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Jonny är doktorand i pedagogik vid Örebro universitet. Han var en av deltagarna under symposiedagarna.
Siv är lärare och specialpedagog i Umeå. Hon var en av deltagarna under symposiedagarna.
