Interaction between students and teachers is fundamental and has therefore been widely studied in education. However, there have been few studies on intensive special support being provided to vocational education and training (VET) students. Firstly, the focus of this article is on students' perceptions of interactions with their class teachers. Students (aged 17-34 years) from four Finnish vocational institutions providing intensive special support were interviewed. According to the findings, the demands students placed on their class teachers and for interactions with them were modest and their perceptions of both were favourable. Interactions seemed to be study-orientated and class teachers behaved as active initiators, with students echoing their opinions. Students' narratives excluded future career plans, talking about students' strengths or future ambitions or dreams. Secondly, the aim of this study is to review Finnish VET critically. In the reformed VET system, competence-based orientation emphasises individual guidance and support. Therefore, as the dialogue between teacher and student seems to enable successful trajectories, it is essential to make this apparent. Part of education's larger purpose is to make room for students' voices and interpretations during their study, which includes both acquiring qualifications to undertake certain work, and subjectification as an empowering element and socialisation of the social, cultural and political order.
This paper reports on a study of the dynamics of social emotions and social bonds between students and class teachers by analysing the narratives of students receiving intensive special support in the Finnish vocational education and training (VET) system. Pride refers to a strong and safe involvement in interaction, and shame implies intimidated social bonds. The analysis is based on abductive content analysis for which Greimas' actant model worked as an analysis tool. We found some students showing high respect to their teachers who acted as senders setting the objects for students' studying. Pride is based on the students' experiences in achieving the objects, thereby pleasing their teachers and secondly on their ability to see positive development in their social belonging. The students who experienced feelings of shame did not perceive themselves as being subjects of positive development, but their special needs overshadowed their social relationships. They found it difficult to see approving and benevolent senders and receivers which could be interpreted as an explicit source of shame. The results concern not only individual teachers' pedagogical practices and ways of interaction, but also the whole VET system which addresses competence and effective individual study paths rather than social belonging and communality.
The purpose of this study was to learn about Finnish VET representatives’ perceptions of inclusion. Discussions and research on inclusion in education have mainly concentrated on the comprehensive school context, although vocational education and training (VET) students may have multiple, intersectional experiences of disadvantage. Our data included representatives (N=53) from five different Finnish VET sectors. Through semi-structured interviews, we investigated their interpretations of inclusion. We applied an abductive approach in our analytical process that followed the principles of qualitative content analysis. Our findings indicated that the definition of inclusion is ambiguous. At the administration level, inclusion was related to ideology, whereas teachers spoke about special education practices. Work-life representatives connected inclusion to the principles of communality, and students appreciated this understanding and individual solutions in their studying and workplace learning. This study supports the view of earlier studies and addresses a need for shared understanding and values to engage with inclusion in practice. The VET sector would benefit from discussions and training in inclusion and inclusive principles, where the study works as an initiator.
This paper airs the experiences of eighteen students with special educational needs completing their studies at a Finnish vocational institution, which has a mandate to provide intensive special support for the students. It contributes to the national and international discussion of education’s purposes and elaborates on students’ descriptions. The study frames a research question: To what extent are Biesta’s domains of good education—qualification, socialization, and subjectification—audible in the narratives of Finland’s VET special educational needs students? The paper adopts a narrative approach and uses narrative positioning analysis as a methodical tool to drill down into the themes produced in deductive content analysis. According to our analysis, subjectification and socialization were the most important domains of VET. The qualification domain of education did not appear as professional self-confidence in students’ narratives, but it served as subjectification and socialization. VET must be an inclusive process that provides all students with the opportunity to become balanced and civilized citizens and assist them in entering the world. To this end, instead of emphasizing measurable outcomes such as qualifications and employment rates, more attention should be paid on the social and subjective domains of VET.
The role of Finnish vocational special needs teachers has changed during the last decades according to work-life needs and inclusive ambitions in education. In addition to substance competence, teachers need pedagogical knowledge and special education skills. This study investigates descriptions by Finnish vocational special needs teachers of the interaction with students who receive intensive learning support, and the study traces their opportunities to support the students in vocational colleges, work life, and society, and thus inclusion. We ask: (RQ1) How do vocational special needs teachers describe students with special educational needs (SEN) and their interaction with them? (RQ2) What in the vocational special needs teachers’ descriptions promotes the students’ membership in the vocational education and training (VET) system, in the world of work, and society in general, thus inclusion? We interviewed nine vocational special needs teachers who work as class leaders in VET colleges which provide intensive special support for students. The analysis of the interview data followed the principles of qualitative content analysis, and a category analysis was applied as a methodological tool to elaborate on the teachers’ descriptions. The findings revealed three themes: (1) Students’ profiles; (2) Interaction with the students; (3) Students’ special needs. The participants of the study described the students and the interaction with them mainly in learning situations, but simultaneously they had a strong will to encourage the students’ interaction also in different situations and circumstances, and thus, support the students’ subjective and social growth. The study argues that to promote inclusion in VET it would be essential to acknowledge that the identity of vocational teachers is based not only on their identity as educational or vocational specialists but there is also a third domain which could be seen as a teacher agent’s role as they construct a bridge between the college and real world.
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