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Abstract
In Norway, postgraduate training in special education has developed from 2‐year higher education programmes for teachers into a university professional programme offering a doctoral degree. The principal purpose of the doctoral programme was to generate a distinct special educational knowledge base, thus creating an independent professional identity. This study examines the relationship between the doctoral programme and the discipline's identity and institutional self‐understanding. Reviews of applications for doctoral study and scholarships in special education are analysed. The results suggest that the discipline prioritizes research projects based on the individual–diagnostic perspective above projects within the collective–inclusive perspective. Instead of addressing educational matters, the discipline appears to focus principally on individual–clinical issues. As the academic programme distances itself from educational and social contexts, the link between the academic and practical fields of special education has become tenuous. The question is raised whether the academic discipline of special education is standing in the way of developments towards inclusive education.