Struggling for recognition and inclusion - parents’ and pupils’ experiences of special support measures in school

摘要

During the last decade an increasing use of differentiated support measures for pupils with special educational needs,nindicative of a discrepancy between educational policies and practices, has been witnessed in Sweden. Another trend hasnbeen the increased use of medical diagnoses in school. The aim of this study was to explore the main concern of supportngiven to pupils with special educational needs and how pupils and parents experience and handle this. Interviews werenconducted with eight pupils in Grades 7u00029*and their parents*at two compulsory schools in a city in northern Sweden. Angrounded theory approach was used for analyzing the interview data. A conceptual model was generated illuminating thenmain concern of special support measures for pupils and parents. The core category of the model, struggling for recognitionnand inclusion, was related to two categories, which further described how this process was experienced and handled by thenparticipants. These categories were labeled negotiating expertise knowledge within a fragmented support structure and coping withnstigma, ambivalence, and special support measures. The developed conceptual model provides a deeper understanding of annongoing process of struggle for recognition and inclusion in school as described by the pupils and parents.