Abstract
ABSTRACT This article presents a review of qualitative research on interprofessional cooperation between regular teachers and special educators published from 2005 to 2019. The aim of the review was to gain knowledge about how different forms of cooperation take shape and about factors at multiple levels that facilitate or constrain cooperation as a means of achieving inclusion. In total, 25 studies were selected. The results are discussed in relation to Thomas Skrtic’s theory of bureaucracies within the school organisation in order to compare and analyse different forms of interprofessional cooperation and schools’ organisations of special educational work. Cooperative teaching, special educational consultations and mixed forms of cooperation were found to entail different benefits and challenges related to communication and the cooperating actors’ roles. Facilitating factors included personal chemistry, an equal distribution of power and responsibilities and support from the school management through provision of professional development and adequate planning time. In several studies, a flexible cooperation was argued to be hindered by curricular constraints and standardised testing. Education policy is therefore emphasised in this review as important for understanding the conditions under which school staff are responsible for inclusion.
Highlights
Inclusive education seems to be difficult both to define and to achieve
The five themes will be presented as subthemes relating to the research questions, as follows: (1) How does the cooperative work of regular teachers and special educators take shape within different forms of cooperation? and (2) How do benefits and challenges in the cooperation between regular teachers and special educators relate to facilitating and constraining factors at multiple levels?
Instructional decisions in the co-taught classroom investigated by Ashton (2010) were generally made by the regular teacher in accordance with general education standards, and the instruction of students with IEPs took the shape of a side activity rather than being a part of individualised teaching
Summary
Inclusive education seems to be difficult both to define and to achieve. Not least, it is unclear how teachers and special needs staff should cooperate in order to create more inclusive classrooms. In a critical research review, Göransson and Nilholm (2014) identified empirical shortcomings in research about inclusive education, arguing that there is a lack of studies about how more inclusive environments are to be constructed in schools if we understand inclusion as involving all pupils. The purpose of this review is to further our knowledge about opportunities and barriers to the development towards a more inclusive classroom by reviewing research that examines different aspects of the cooperation between regular teachers and special educators. There are reasons to believe that factors at multiple levels might affect the work of schools and cooperating professionals in this area (Skrtic 1991)
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