Browsing by Author "Makkonen, Kirsi"

Goals. The purpose of the thesis was to find out the professional development of already em-ployed teachers studying to become special teachers, “more than as teachers”. As a back-ground theory, I look at teaching, the profession and career of a teacher, especially from the perspective of a special education teacher. The aim of this research was to find out why an already qualified teacher wants to go to study special education, what are the goals for study-ing and how those goals were achieved. Since it is possible to train as a special education teacher both as a degree student and by completing separate special education teacher´s studies, the research also looked at the difference between the two study methods. Methods. The research was carried out as a qualitative interview. The informants were kin-dergarten teachers, classroom teachers or vocational teachers who studied special education as master’s degree students, completed separate special education studies, or studied spe-cial education at the Open University. The interviews were supplemented with an email sur-vey. The interviews were transcribed and the material was analyzed by content analysis. Results and conclusions. The development of teachers into special educational teachers was described by two paths, which were “alternative” and “goal”. The “alternative” path was the choice of students majoring in special education as a Master of Education, and they had not specifically pursued the teaching profession but rather drifted into teaching. Those who com-pleted separate special education studies were on the “goal” path and were already oriented to the field of education after their secondary education. The special education studies aimed at eligibility and competence for the position of special education teacher, community spirit and knowledge and understanding of meeting special needs students in school. Studies in special education were found to be useful, although there is room for improvement in their or-ganization and practical implementation. Informants saw master’s studies in special educa-tion and separate special needs teacher studies as an important part of professional growth and development.