Inkludering i skolan?: Mellan motstridig utbildningspolicy och en mångprofessionell undervisningspraktik

Abstract in English

Although inclusive education has been a global political aim for decades, it seems to have been difficult to take substantial steps towards inclusion in teaching practice. While previous research shows that the recontextualization of inclusive education from policy to practice is complex and involves several aspects, studies rarely take more than one or a few of these aspects into account and tend to focus on either the policy level or the teaching of students with different needs in schools and classrooms. The aim of this thesis is to gain a broader understanding of these matters through three sub-studies analyzing Swedish national policies as well as teachers’ and special educators’ enactment of inclusive education in schools. Drawing on a multidimensional understanding of policy enactment, the studies make use of multiple analytical tools and procedures in order to take into account both discursive, interpretive and contextual aspects of enactment. The thesis shows that the recontextualization of inclusive education from policy to practice is associated with a number of dilemmas, which need to be resolved by local school actors. Firstly, Swedish education policies on differentiation, special education and inclusive education have been constructed over time as solutions to different problems, thus imposing conflicting demands on practitioners. Secondly, the analyses show how both policy documents and local school actors’ descriptions of their practice are largely shaped by discourses emphasizing student performance in relation to standardized goals, which constrain inclusive ambitions. Nevertheless, the findings present many examples of inclusive cooperative practices and creative classroom resolutions to dilemmas. In this regard, the thesis illuminates how the room for interpretation and action while enacting policy can differ between actors depending on their position in the local school organization, exposure to external policy demands and contextual constraints. By illustrating how local school actors navigate through conflicting demands by moving between discourses and practices that are inclusive in some aspects but not in others, the thesis contributes both empirically and theoretically to research on inclusive education and policy enactment.