Life Course of Special Educational Needs Students

Book excerpt: This book discusses the contested issue of how different kinds of special educational support in Norway, such as placement in special classes or use of teacher assistants, prepare Special Educational Need (SEN) students for further education and adult life. This is done by following former students categorized as having special educational needs for twenty years, from the start of the upper secondary school until their mid-thirties. Different choices and the adjustments and active adaptations young people make throughout their lives is a recurring theme, focusing on education, work, family, mental health, and social networks. The authors in this volume analyze and critically discuss topics around competence attainment in upper secondary school and higher education, employment, public support in adult life, mental health, social exclusion and isolation, and data-mediated networks. It concludes how the experiences from school time have affected the adaptation in later adulthood, and provides an answer to whether the assistive measures have benefits. What are the consequences in the short and long run? A central explanatory tension is between disabled students and disabling schools. We trace consequences – possibly non-intended – for the former SEN students due to the stigmatization effect of receiving special educational help in a vulnerable phase of life. The authors interpret results within a framework of life course approaches and disability theories. The perspectives introduced in the book are of interest for researchers and academics in the social sciences, such as sociology, special education, and social work.