Special Educational Needs Teachers in Finnish Inclusive Vocational Education and Training

Abstract

This study with a qualitative approach profiles special educational needs (SEN) teachers working in Finnish inclusive vocational schools in terms of their work lives and professional learning. The purpose is to contribute to our understanding of the complexity of the SEN teaching profession in the Finnish initial vocational education and training (IVET). The data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 in-service SEN teachers across Finland, and a thematic approach was used for data analysis. The findings illustrate the 4Ms (multiple roles, multiple tasks, multiple problems, multiple relationships) of SEN teachers’ work within the inclusive IVET context. SEN teachers need to play multiple roles to deal with multiple tasks and problems through collaboration with multiple individuals. More specifically, various intra- and inter-personal relationships are integral in SEN teachers’ daily teaching practices, which indicates that a supportive school climate matters significantly, especially when wider institutional and national contexts are important factors contributing to SEN teachers’ job satisfaction. Although basic special needs education (SNE) competences can be developed through preservice education, knowledge and skills of a more comprehensive scope are considered necessary to better tackle the increasingly complex challenges faced by SEN teachers. One solution to handle the insufficiency of preservice SEN teacher education is to make good use of SEN teachers’ informal learning experiences gained through their prior vocational careers, current workplaces and private lives. The findings suggest that up-to-date and more holistic preservice SEN teacher education should be designed and developed in accordance with the ongoing changes and the new challenges being faced by SEN teachers in inclusive IVET schools. The findings also imply that SEN teachers’ professionalism is inevitably interwoven with and acquired and developed by their previous work experiences and certain important life incidents. This inquiry sheds new light and provides a more all-around view on these teachers’ professional development.