The current study examined what makes special education teachers remain in the profession. We will examine this, uniquely, separately among teachers in special education schools versus special education classes in general education schools. Participants were 212 special education teachers in special education schools and 257 in special education…

Retrieval-based learning has been investigated in various populations. The present study examined retrieval-based learning in a sample of students at a special-needs school with educational tracks for learning and mental development. In addition, a comparison group of students at a regular school was examined. Learning conditions were manipulated…

Although inclusion is the declared goal, the transition from a system based on special schools to an inclusive school system has only been progressing very slowly in individual countries. In an evolving school system, the existing special schools keep struggling to justify their existence. This study investigates the regional distribution effects…

The assistant workforce is a constituent presence in all schools. Progressive reconfiguration of the role has resulted in a hybrid position, with assistants customarily navigating power relationships in the hierarchy of the school. This paper employs Bourdieu's theory of social fields, in particular, his system of relations, as a means to consider…

With the increase of special schools in UK and around the world, this study seeked to explore in-depth the reality of practitioners working with children with SEND in specialist settings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising semi-structured interviews with 11 special school teachers and leaders, this study found that professionals working in…

Friendships and social relationships are central to wellbeing but the friendships of those with complex needs are often ignored. This study explored the friendships and social relationships of students with complex communication needs (CCN) in and outside of special school settings, to understand how they view and experience them. There were 20…

Education of children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities requires adequate assessment of their educational needs and potential to learn. Dynamic testing using analogical reasoning tasks may be a promising way to perform such an assessment. However, it remains unclear how dynamic testing with these children may be done in practice.…

There is an abundance of literature on health-related outcomes for children and young people with Prader-Willi syndrome and on their lived experiences as well as on their caregivers'. However, little is known about the experiences of education practitioners when providing for them. This study gathered in-depth evidence of the lived experience of…

Students on the autism spectrum often require support to navigate transitions from one educational setting to another. This study examined stakeholder perceptions about the transition supports that educators employ to support students on the autism spectrum to transition from one school setting to another. A non-matched Australia-wide sample of…

Autistic individuals can have poor outcomes from school, including high rates of unemployment. Despite a growing focus on the work experiences of autistic people, and various approaches to remediate the difficulties they undergo, the school sector remains largely unexplored, as are the insights available from former autistic employees. In a…

A key objective of inclusive education is to provide learners with special educational needs with an environment that fosters a sense of belonging. They lose the sense of belonging when they feel being separated from the rest of society. Segregation is, however, a logically necessary method and means of the pursuit of inclusion. The focus of this…

The voices of autistic young people are frequently excluded from transition planning and decision-making, especially when they have more complex needs and may not use speech to communicate. The aim of this research, based at a residential special school in England, was to extend and evaluate the use of the 'I am' Digital Stories methodology. 'I…

Research evaluating phonics reading programs for children with severe intellectual disabilities (ID) is limited. The current study investigated whether using an online reading program (Headsprout® Early Reading; HER) as supplementary reading instruction for children with a severe ID leads to improvements in reading skills as compared to children…

We aimed to explore the experiences of teachers, autistic students and students' parents, before and after professional development intervention for teachers in primary school. The main participants were five autistic students aged 7-11 years in three primary schools (intervention schools), their parents and teachers. Five school contexts were…

Mainstreaming and inclusion of students with special educational needs in regular education, challenge traditional concepts and common practices. Traditionally, special education has been a parallel yet separate educational system. Even though there is almost universal agreement on the goals of inclusion and mainstreaming, special education…