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The special education reform, has resulted in major changes in the job description of Finnish special education teachers. Also, distribution of resources to schools have changed. Previous researchers have found lack of resources in special education. Teachers also experience lack of time. To date, there have not been quantitative research about the matter of time specific to special education teachers.  I explored special education teachers experiences about challenges that connect to resources in this research. Opinions of special education teachers are interesting because they not only operate in the field but also have academic education. The aim of the study was to answer two questions: which resource challenges A teachers experience to be (1) most disturbing and (2) least disturbing (2).  The answers collected via electric questionaire, were from previous students from University of Helsinki whose major was special education. The participants were special education teachers in primary school. The questionnaire included many questions about resources. Answering scale were from 0-4. These answers were analysed by using quantitative methods. Also, questionnaire contained open questions. These answers I analysed using quantatative measures by themes related to resources.  According to the study the special education teachers experienced many different challenges.  The teachers often experienced lack of time. They were in hurry which left little time for planning the co-teaching. The teachers also worked after the working hours. Co-operating were also experienced challenging caused by lack of planning time.  Also, great challenge faced the system of special education. Amount of given support to pupils were too little. The teachers also found challenging the lack of special education classes. The size of special education classes was right. Experiences about human resources showed need for special education teachers and assistants. It was also hard to get substitute. The special education teachers didn’t see need for adding more regular teachers.

An amendment was made to the Finnish Basic Education Act which now forms a three-tier model to the special education system. The purpose of this study was to find out what were the arguments behind the amendment and how were the special educational needs discussed as part of the amendment process. The international educational policy declarations have stated that every child has a right to study in a regular class in a regular school. Finland has also ratified this declaration. The purpose of the amendment is to direct schools to become more inclusive and to offer special education in a regular class and as soon as possible in order to avoid transfer into a special education class. The data of this study consisted of government proposal and the discussion about the amendment at the plenary session by members of the parliament. The data was read as a political speech which means speaking for or against something. The analysis was based on Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? approach which suggests that as a new policy is made it constitutes a problem. The aim of this approach is to locate the dominant discourses in political texts. The amendment was supported by arguing for the rights and advantages of both the pupils with special needs and other pupils, the need to diminish the stigma of special education as well as early intervention in order to prevent the accumulation of problems. Based on the analysis the need for special education seems to be multifaceted because special needs are seen to be caused by various reasons. The positions varied from individualistic to the inflexibility of structures and social practices and the perspective of worry and risks. The position changed between these three discourses and therefore it is clear that there is no dominant consensus of what the reasons for special needs are and hence the conceptions of how to organize special education vary.

Goal. The most important subject in this study is integration. Integration is very current issue, which is why I think it is very important to study this topic. More and more special needs stu-dents are integrated into mainstream education, especially into the visual arts and therefore I wanted to address this topic in this study. Integration has seen in a very different light from different positions and that is why I was also personally interested in this topic. In this study, I looked at visual arts education from the point of view of special needs students and their teachers. This study researched special needs students’ visual art education integrated into the mainstream education. My literature review researches studies done from teachers’ point of view and analyses what kind of visual art education is in the class with integrated special needs students. The study also analyses the teachers’ capabilities to meet and teach special needs students in the mainstream classroom. Methods. This study has been made descriptive literature review. The literature of this study is articles and studies about the visual arts education of special needs students in general education, integration and the ability of teachers to differentiate their teaching. The literature I used in this study is Finnish studies and articles. Results and conclusion. In the results of the research, the focus was on the integration of special students into visual arts in positive aspects but also on the negative aspects. Visual art was seen as a place to grow as a person, an opportunity for peer learning and to increase the appreciation of diversity. Challenges were seen, for example, in the great differences be-tween pupils in skills. The teachers had several different ways to meet and teach special needs students. The most important thing was knowing the students as individuals, and the teachers had several concrete ways of differentiating. The results of the research also high-lighted the great differences in the skills of teacher students and the working teachers to face special needs students. Unlike students, teachers were able to describe many concrete ways.

Tavoitteet. Tämän kirjallisuuskatsauksena toteutetun kandidaatin tutkielman tavoitteena oli tutkia erityistä tukea tarvitsevien oppilaiden opettaja-oppilassuhteen ja opintomenestyksen välisiä yhteyksiä alakoulussa opiskelevilta oppilailta. Tämän lisäksi tavoitteena oli tarkastella millaisena valittujen tutkimusartikkelien valossa erityistä tukea tarvitsevien oppilaiden opettaja-oppilassuhde näyttäytyy sen eri ulottuvuuksissa (konflikti, läheisyys ja riippuvuus). Menetelmät. Tutkielma toteutettiin kuvailevana kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Tutkielmaan valitut artikkelit olivat vertaisarvioituja empiirisiä tutkimusartikkeleja vuosilta 2016–2021, jotka käsittelivät aihetta ainakin osin tutkimuskysymyksiin vastaten. Artikkelien tutkimustulosten analyysin ja vertailun pohjalta saatiin tutkimustulokset tämän tutkielman kysymyksiin. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Tutkielmani tulosten mukaan erityistä tukea tarvitsevien oppilaiden opettaja-oppilassuhteen ja opintomenestyksen välillä näyttää olevan yhteys kouluun kiinnittymisen kautta. Kouluun kiinnittyminen on yhteydessä opintomenestykseen erityistä tukea tarvitsevilla oppilailla, ja koska opettaja-oppilassuhteen laatu on merkittävä tekijä kouluun kiinnittymisessä, voidaan todeta välillisesti yhteys myös opintomenestykseen. Kuitenkin tarvittaisiin lisää tutkimusta juuri opintomenestykseen peilaten, jotta voitaisiin puhua selvemmistä yhteyksistä. Opettaja-oppilassuhteen laadussa erityistä tukea tarvitsevan oppilaan ja opettajan välillä konfliktin määrä oli suurempi verrattuna yleisen tuen oppilaisiin, ja ADHD-oireet olivat yhteydessä suurempaan konfliktin määrään. Aiheen tutkimuksesta löytyi paljon aukkoja, joten aihetta olisi syytä tutkia lisää tulevaisuudessa niin kansainvälisestä kuin suomalaisestakin kontekstista käsin.

This bachelor’s thesis is a descriptive review about the factors that have an effect on the articulated phase of basic and secondary education for those with special needs. By scietific literature I examine the differences of objectives and practices of special education in basic and secondary education. For research questions, I chose to ask: how do the objectives and practices differ between basic and secondary education and what effects do these factors have in the process of being promoted to secondary education. As my research literature I used the curriculum of basic education (2014), the curriculum of upper secondary school education (2017) and The handbook of special education (2015). I compared the objectives and practices of special education in basic education, in upper secondary school and in vocational school. There is no overestimating the importance of the articulated phase of basic and secondary education. It is unquestioningly important that a student with special needs gets enough knowledge of the possibilities he or she has for his or her further studies, that are equivalent to his or her needs and strenghts. The multi-professional collaboration has an important significance on the articulated phase, so that the further educational institution gets the information of how the student has been supported in basic education and what kind of support the student needs in his or her further studies. The biggest differences in the objectives and practices in secondary education - in upper secondary school and in vocational school - are associated with the aim of the education. The main objectives of special education in upper secondary school education are to advance the students’ learning, the positive belief of themselves and the education, the competence in everyday life, and taking responsibility for themselves and their studies. In vocational school the main objectives of special education are aimed at accomplishing the degree.

The aim of this thesis was to find out what the concept of differentiation means and which theoretical arguments are attached to it in the studies. The thesis has also sought to identify the importance of differentiation in the context of physical education and to describe how the differentiation is implemented in physical education in a heterogeneous group of students and whether teachers face challenges with this aspect. Differentiation has been raised as a pedagogical starting point for all teaching in FNCC 2014. Nevertheless, teachers are experiencing differentiation to be a major challenge in their teaching, based on research. The subject of this thesis was formed by the interest in this contradiction. The extraordinary learning environment of physical education classes and my own experience of the challenge about differentiation in physical education increased the interest in the subject of the thesis. The research method of the study was a descriptive literature review. The material was selected in the books and studies on differentiation and physical education, which were mainly published in the 2010s, with the exception of a few classic works. As headwords, I used concepts related in the research topic to help me gather as versatile material as possible to illustrate the phenomenon of my thesis. According to the research method used, I summarized the material and sought to bring up new conclusions based on it. On the basis of this review, the challenge of differentiation teachers' are experiencing was partly due to the limited scope of the study. Theories attached to differentiation within the boundaries of the thesis emphasize the importance of knowing your students and seeing differentiation as a guiding philosophy that takes into account the individual characteristics of each student. According to research data, teachers find heterogeneous groups of pupils as a great challenge, making difficult to differentiate in physical education classes. However, every student has the right to participate in normal education and to receive teaching according to their own abilities. Teachers' resources to implement quality physical education are at a discrepancy with the objectives of the national curriculum. Developing teacher education, understanding differentiation as a teaching philosophy, and using teaching methods that are considered to be the best in research can give teachers more ways to differentiate their teaching.

Lapsen perhesuhteet jakautuvat usein vanhempien eron myötä kahteen kotiin, jolloin myös kokemus kodin tunteesta saa uusia ulottuvuuksia. Lapsen ääntä ja kokemuksia vanhempien eron jälkeisessä elämässä on tärkeä kuulla ja ymmärtää, jotta lapsi saa tarvitsemaansa tukea muutostilanteen käsittelyyn. Tässä tutkimuksessa tavoitteena on ymmärtää erolapsen kokemusmaailmaa sekä koota yhteen ja tulkita kahdessa kodissa asuvan erolapsen kodin tuntuun liittyvää tutkimusta. Perhe ja koti ovat ihmisten kokemuksiin pohjautuvia käsitteitä, joihin yhdistyy monia tulkintoja ja näkemyksiä muun muassa arvoista, ihanteista ja tuntemuksista. Ei ole yksiselitteistä, miten suhteet kotiin ja perheeseen koetaan, mutta kokemuksia esittämällä saadaan arvokasta tietoa tunteiden kirjosta, joita lapsille muodostuu kokemuksissa monipaikkaisesta asumisesta. Tässä tutkimuksessa kodin tuntu -ilmiötä lähestyttiin kuvailevan kirjallisuuskatsauksen keinoin. Aineisto muodostui aiemmista teemaan liittyvistä tutkimuksista, joita tarkastelemalla, yhdistelemällä ja tulkitsemalla epäyhtenäinen tieto jäsentyi kerronnaksi perheestä, erosta, kodista ja kodin tunnusta. Lapsen näkökulman korostaminen oli tämän tutkimuksen kannalta tärkeää ja synteesi kahdessa kodissa asuvan erolapsen kodin tunnusta muodostui aiempien tutkimusten analyysista. Kodin tuntu näyttäytyi kahdessa kodissa asuvien erolasten monipuolisina ilmaisuina kodin tunnun kokemisesta. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella kodin tunnun osatekijöitä olivat materiaaliset edellytykset, kuten esimerkiksi oma huone tai tila, ihmissuhteet, kokemusten muuttuminen ja paikkaan kuuluminen. Ihmissuhteet, erityisesti suhde vanhempiin, korostui useissa tutkimuksissa merkityksellisimpänä tekijänä erolapsen kodin tunnussa. Eri tutkimuksissa erolapsen kodin tuntuun liittyvät tulokset olivat hyvin yhteneväisiä ja toisiaan täydentäviä.