Effects of History and Culture on Attitudes toward Special Education: A Comparison of Finland and Norway
Table 2
The historical development of the school system and special education.
Finland
Norway
Full-time special education since the 1860s for disability groups.
Full-time special education since the 1860s for different disability groups.
Part-time special education for reading and writing as well as speech difficulties since the 1940s. More easily accepted by parents than segregated special education [16]. Not considered very special, rather as part of normal support.
Special classes in normal school since 1955. Part-time special education since the 1980s. Part-time special education was introduced as a strategy when the use of special schools was reduced from the mid-1970s.
First professorship in special education in 1948.
First professorship in special education in 1991.
Both full-time and part-time special education teachers trained since 1960. Before that, various courses available.
Special teacher training school since 1961. No special training for part-time special education.
Unified nine-year-long “school for all” was created for all of Finland between 1972–1977 [16]. Part-time special education (the equality ideology) has increased since then.
Unified nine-year-long “school for all” since 1969. From the 1990s on, a stable use in special education (between 5 and 6 percentage). An increased use of special education since 2006.
Schools receive more money per pupil with special needs than per ordinary pupil.
No additional money.
During the 1990s’ depression, more resources were given to segregated special education, fewer for part time [17].
