Collaboration between subject teachers and special education teachers in Finnish lower secondary schools
Kotilainen, Ninnu; Sirkko, Riikka; Takala, Marjatta (2025-06-19)
Taylor & Francis
19.06.2025
Kotilainen, N., Sirkko, R., & Takala, M. (2025). Collaboration between subject teachers and special education teachers in Finnish lower secondary schools. Education Inquiry, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2025.2518776
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202506264976
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202506264976
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
It has been argued that successful teacher collaboration is challenging to implement in a secondary school context, where teaching is based on subjects. However, collaboration between subject teachers and special education teachers (SETs) is important, especially in promoting inclusion. This is why we wanted to determine what is included in their collaboration in Finnish secondary schools, and how teachers describe this collaboration. Together, 175 subject teachers and SETs responded to questions about collaboration. Using content analysis, we found that collaboration usually means exchanging information on students or an upcoming lesson. Other, deeper forms of collaboration, such as co-teaching or joint planning exist but are much rarer due to inflexible school structures and lack of time. Four categories describing teacher collaboration were found. These categories of dysfunctional, uncertain, comfortable and professional collaboration were compared to Hargreaves’ ideas of individualistic and collaborative teacher cultures. No school-wide teacher culture was detected, suggesting that individual teachers’ collaborative skills and willingness to collaborate are a factor in the success of collaboration.
It has been argued that successful teacher collaboration is challenging to implement in a secondary school context, where teaching is based on subjects. However, collaboration between subject teachers and special education teachers (SETs) is important, especially in promoting inclusion. This is why we wanted to determine what is included in their collaboration in Finnish secondary schools, and how teachers describe this collaboration. Together, 175 subject teachers and SETs responded to questions about collaboration. Using content analysis, we found that collaboration usually means exchanging information on students or an upcoming lesson. Other, deeper forms of collaboration, such as co-teaching or joint planning exist but are much rarer due to inflexible school structures and lack of time. Four categories describing teacher collaboration were found. These categories of dysfunctional, uncertain, comfortable and professional collaboration were compared to Hargreaves’ ideas of individualistic and collaborative teacher cultures. No school-wide teacher culture was detected, suggesting that individual teachers’ collaborative skills and willingness to collaborate are a factor in the success of collaboration.
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