Browsing by Author "Rautiainen, Veera"

The aim of this study was to examine what are the student and instruction related concerns of teachers who teach severely intellectually disabled students. Pupils with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities need intensive and continuous special support on their school path. Their instruction can be organised by the activity areas instead of subjects if the pupil is unable to study subjects by individualised syllabus. The instruction organised by the activity areas aims to provide the student with skills and knowledge that are needed to function as independently as possible in their daily life. The activity areas are motor skills, language and communication, social skills, skills in daily functions and cognitive skills. The instruction organised by the activity areas has been studied considerably less than many other research topics in special education. The research data consisted of 66 interviews of teachers who teach by the activity areas. The interviews were conducted in different parts of Finland in 2018–2020. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. A thematic networks analysis method by Attride-Stirling (2001) was used as an analysis tool. The results of the study were divided into three levels of themes: basic themes, organizing themes and global themes. The results show that the teachers who teach by the activity areas had a wide variety of concerns related to their students and instruction. The concerns were associated with the basic education of the severely intellectually disabled students as well as the time after basic education. On the other hand, the concerns were connected to attachment to the society and the equal social membership. The equal involvement and educational opportunities of students with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities are still not completely achieved. The results of this study can benefit the development of the instruction organized by the activity areas in order to ensure high quality and equal instruction.