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- Petersson Bloom, Linda
(författare)
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Equity in education for autistic students : professional learning to accommodate inclusive education
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose: This thesis aims to explore if and how professionals’ participation in professional development enhances the quality of education for autistic students, including the perspectives of autistic students, their parents, and professionals in pre- and primary school. Furthermore, the thesis directs attention to how professional development may lead to the development of accommodations in the learning environment to support autistic students. Four studies have been conducted to fulfil the aim, which in combination answer the research questions addressed in this thesis. The four studies comprise one systematic review and three empirical studies. Study I, the systematic research review, explored adaptations and modification strategies. Study II investigated how a professional development intervention designed as a lesson study changed attitudes and practices amongst preschool professionals. Studies III–IV were developed from study II, and used professional development to explore changes in the preschool (study III) and primaryschool (study IV) practice. In these studies, multiple stakeholders were included; professionals (teachers, pre- and school management), autistic students, and their parents.Theoretical frameworks: Pragmatism is used as the umbrella framework capturing the methodology and methods, in combination with Communities of Practice (CoP) and Landscapes of Practice (LoP), are used to explain and discuss the results of the thesis.Design/Approach/Methods: A multilevel mixed methods research design was applied in this thesis. Following the concept of mixed methods, the integration was applied in three phases: research design, methods, interpretation and reporting. In the three empirical sub-studies, variants of mixed methods were alsoused in the designs. The results of the sub-studies are synthesized with a narrative synthesis.Findings: The results from the synthesized sub-studies indicate that professional development contributes to changes in professionals’ attitudes, increased knowledge, and strategies to accommodate, the latter more vaguely. Professionals could identify more changes than parents and autistic students. Barriers to implementation were found, such as lack of resources and physical environment. Enabling factors were identified as participation (collaborative aspects). Discrepancies were detected across participants and contexts.Conclusions: Based on the results of the included studies and the synthesized result, it is possible to conclude that professional development can contribute to changes, most prominent when exploring professionals’ views. The more distinct changes resided in changes and development in attitudes contributing to changes in mindset and increased knowledge. Furthermore, a lack of prerequisites, such as resources, may hinder the sustainability of professional development and, on a larger scale, inclusive education, which needs to be addressed further. To conclude equity for autistic students is a challenging issue for the Swedish school context, and is not yet fulfilled for this student group.Originality/Value: This thesis offers insights into a complex area, includes multiple stakeholders and provides a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena. Including young autistic students as active participants could be considered to be of great value. The findings could be of interest to both the research community and school practice.
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| 2. |
- Plantin Ewe, Linda
(författare)
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Lärares relationskompetens i möte med elever med ADHD
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge of teachers’ relational competence with respect to students with ADHD. In addition, a specific focus is investigating whether teachers’ understanding of relational competence, regarding the targeted student group, can be developed using video-based interventions. Moreover, a focus is to examine whether - and if so how - the intervention contributes to changes in teachers as well as their students’ perceptions of their teacher-student relationshipin practice. Sub-studies: This dissertation contains four sub-studies, each of them aiming to answer a part of the overall research question. The first study is a systematic literature review aiming to systematically identify, critically review and synthesize existing research in the focused area. The second study is a pilot study investigating if teachers’ relational competence can be developed using video-based interventions. In study three, the aim was to investigate how teachers’ understanding of relational competence with respect to students with ADHD were developed using video-based interventions. Finally, the fourth study investigated if the video-based intervention (Study 3) contributed to changes in teachers’ and students’ (with and without NPS) perceptions of their teacher-student relationship. Theory: This dissertation takes its point of departure from a relational framework using Scheff’s (1997) theory of social bond together with Aspelin’s (2018) and Aspelin and Jönsson’s (2019) Relational Competence Model (RCM). The relational framework is supplemented by Laveand Wenger’s (1991) sociocultural theory of situated learning. Method: The overall design of this dissertation is based on mixed methods. An exploratory multi-stage evaluation design has been used. Characteristic of such a design is that each sub-study contains a study of its own which is iteratively following from the previous in order to evaluate the effect of the intervention made, and by extension, answering the overall research question. Knowledge contributions: The overall knowledge contribution of this dissertation concerns teachers’ perceptions of relational competence regarding students with ADHD, and how such perceptions can be developed. One of the dissertation’s scientific knowledge contributions is its testing ofthe RCM model for students with ADHD. The results indicate that the model can be successfully used to develop teachers’ relational competence towards these students. The dissertation also suggests that teachers need to have a “relational preparedness” - a readiness - for the unforeseen. This implies an ability to observe student behavior and reflect on what it suggests regarding students’ thoughts and feelings, together with the teacher’s ability to self-reflect with the intention to identify and acknowledge their own emotional reactions to student signals. Limitation: The lack of a randomized sample affects the credibility of the study. The lack of qualitative student interviews can be seen as a limitation as the information collected exposes changes in students’ perceptions but does not provide a deeper understanding of what the changes consisted of. Practical implications: The results are relevant for teacher education by providing a clear focus on teachers’ relational competence regarding students with ADHD, which, in turn, can help future teachers to be better equipped to meet the diversity of students in each classroom. Furthermore, the results should be relevant for teachers as well as school leaders, through its focus is on relational competence as a situated activity, and on how this competence can be developed through a small and limited intervention.
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