Finnish Perspectives on Ethnicity and Special Educational Needs: An Intersectional Follow-Up Study.

• In Event: Inclusion and Special Needs Education for Immigrant Students in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

Disproportionate representation of ethnic minorities in special education services is a well-documented issue in many countries. For example, in the United States students with African-American, Hispanic or Indigenous backgrounds are more often than students with White/Caucasian placed in special educational services and there are differences also related to the type of disabilities found common for these ethnic groups (Anastasiou, Gardner & Michail, 2011). While it is clear, that cultural differences may cause significant challenges for both teachers as well as students to find a common ground in terms of educational expectations and school behavior, it is unlikely that ethnic background alone should be the main factor in relation to the special educational needs. This is in particular true with those young people who may have spent most of their lives in their current country as second (or 2.5G) generation immigrants, which on the other hand means that they are actually first generation naturalized residents.

In the Nordic countries, the special educational research has so far only occasionally focused on the students at the intersection of special educational needs and ethnic background. In this presentation the focus is more specifically on the stories of a group of immigrant-origin youth in Finland, who have been placed in Tier 3 (special support) level special education and they have completed their compulsory education as a student in special educational group. These young people have been participating in a larger follow-up study (see Kalalahti, Varjo & Jahnukainen, 2017) tracking the transitions of immigrant and native Finns from the end of the compulsory education to the upper secondary education. The aim of this study was to investigate the intersecting features of their special education placement by describing their own stories of their educational transitions and experiences of special education support. Methodologically their stories were contrasted with two classmates from native-born families. This presentation describes the stories behind of these migrant young people’s special education placement, educational transitions, and their own experiences of those services offered to them. As an outcome, intersection of ethnicity and special educational needs will be discussed especially within the themes of ‘timing’ and ‘language proficiency’ and highlight the need to develop and research the ‘language aware’ pedagogics in special needs education.

Author

• Markku Tapani Jahnukainen, University of Helsinki