Discourses on educational support in the context of general upper secondary education

Abstract

After basic education, the Finnish educational system divides into separate types of upper secondary schools – general and vocational. Vocational schools have long traditions of educating young people with support needs and arranging special education. General upper secondary schools are instead considered to serve ‘academically orientated’ students, and these schools do not necessarily have established support practices. In this article, we examine how the needs of support are discussed in general upper secondary education, and what kinds of meanings they get in a school’s everyday practices. The article is based on an ethnographic study of educational support, study counselling and societal inclusion. Our analysis highlights the school’s study culture as strongly academic, where diverse support practices are not part of the picture. The current resources shape support as an individual and separate addition to general teaching, even though, according to education policy aims, support should be communal and inclusive.

Keywords:

• General upper secondary education
• educational support
• special needs education
• discourse
• self-responsibility
• ethnographic research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In Finland most young people who do not continue on to upper secondary schools enter preparatory training programmes for vocational schools or general upper secondary schools (OSF 2018).

2 In vocational education, a student is entitled to special support in learning and studies if, because of a learning difficulty, disability, illness or another reason, they need long-term, regular support to achieve learning goals and a diploma. Special support means systematic, pedagogical support and special teaching and learning arrangements which are based on the student’s goals and skills (Vocational Education and Training Act 531/2017). Nineteen per cent of students in vocational education for young people received special support in 2016, of whom 84% studied in mainstream study groups, whereas the rest studied in special groups or vocational special education institutes (OSF 2018b).

3 See https://minedu.fi/en/faqs-about-student-admissions, Accessed 1 May 2019.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Academy of Finland, Strategic Research Council, No 303691.