The principal and inclusive education: Investigating the dynamics of negotiation and resistance in Finnish and Swedish education union journals

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of the principal in facilitating inclusive education policies in Sweden and Finland since 1990. It does so by analysing education union journals in both countries. These journals are taken to represent principals’ collective professional voice concerning the dynamics of major educational reforms. The findings show surprisingly similar attitudes towards inclusive education in both Sweden and Finland. According to the journals, inclusive education can only be accommodated by defining student disabilities and disadvantages and training special educators to take charge of separate special education environments. During the 1990s, resistance to inclusive education within the journals was very explicit. More recently their arguments have softened. Inclusive education is in principle a worthy aspiration, but the realities of school systems do not allow for it. These findings are explained by the classic special education theory of Thomas Skrtic, who argues that general education builds on various types of bureaucracies aiming to maintain the stability of their organisation at scale. In summary, the journals discussions regarding inclusive education can be generalised in three specific concerns: the student should be in focus, the organisational form of inclusive education is crucial, and responsibilities and resources must be clearly articulated.