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The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the state of the art of research on special needs education (SNE) in the context of the Nordic countries’ vocational education and training (VET) systems during the period January 2010 to September 2018.  Twenty studies remained after the search procedure and thematic analysis, 15 of which deal with the practice level and five with the organisation level. No studies were identified as belonging to the policy level. The following themes were found at the practice level: teachers’ work and role, teaching and learning, student transition and student dropout. Themes identified at the organisation level were changes to vocational policy documents and educational practices, and school organisation and its implementation. Finland dominates in terms of number of studies. Furthermore, the review shows that there were few studies in the area of SNE in VET. The results show that further studies are needed to acquire more knowledge about SNE in vocational education.

The purpose of this study was to shed light on how work‐related teacher support in the form of special educational consultation can promote the professional development of teachers working in rural schools located in sparsely populated areas. The phenomenon studied was professional collaboration between class teachers and special educators in the context of special educational consultation. The empirical data were collected through interviews and observations in three rural schools in the northern part of Sweden. The findings indicate that special educational consultation is perceived as support and collaboration. The class teachers appreciate the support they receive from special educators. The collaboration is characterised by professional exchange and mutual problem solving. Distributed expertise seems to be a crucial element of the collaboration. The conclusion is that collaborative special educational consultation enables class teachers to support pupils with special educational needs and strengthens professional collaboration between class teachers and special educators.

The article attempts to shed light on how the expertise of special educators can be utilized in classroom teachers' professional development at rural schools with a diverse student body. The study focused on the educational consultations that took place between the two types of professionals, namely the special educators and the classroom teachers, at three rural schools in three communities in northern Sweden. The special educators did not work at the schools. Rather, they worked at Community centers and ran the consultation with the aid of ICT or when they visited the schools. The multiple-case study describes and analyzes the a) context for consultation, b) how consultation is used to support the teachers, and c) the consultation strategies. The data collection methods were observations, interviews, and questionnaires. After the interviews were transcribed, the data were analyzed by thematic content analysis. The results show that the consultations were based on students' needs, but the consultations focused on the learning environment more than on individual shortcomings. The two professionals collaborated and shared their professional expertise across professional boundaries. This boundary-crossing professional collaboration seems to deepen the consultation between the two professionals and enable them to work together to create a learning environment that supports all pupils.

I denna artikel analyseras fjärrundervisning i relation till skolans digitalisering, med Nivåer av Lärande som teoretiskt ramverk. Detta görs med utgångspunkt i de försök till digitalisering som sedan 1980-talet pågått i svensk grund- och gymnasieskola, och den brist på pedagogiska objekt i termer av skolans undervisningsuppdrag som kännetecknar dessa försök. Ytterligare en del i föreliggande studie utgör en historisk beskrivning av fjärrundervisningens framväxt i svensk skola, där fjärrundervisning varit ett sätt att hantera skolans behov. Sedan redovisas ett empiriskt case om lärares erfarenheter från, och perspektiv på, egen fjärrundervisning i svensk skola. Detta tydliggör att lärarna använder digital teknik i ett målinriktat pedagogiskt syfte, vilket i detta sammanhang innebär att digital teknik är verktyg för att bedriva fjärrundervisning. Slutligen förs en diskussion kring vad som kännetecknar det pedagogiska objekt och den pedagogiska process som utvecklas och realiseras på olika nivåer i skolorganisationen i samspelet mellan fjärrundervisning och skolans digitalisering. Den slutsats som dras är att skolans digitalisering snarare är en fråga om pedagogik än om teknik.