Teachers about collaboration with special education teachers regardingintegrated pupils, with ID : An interview study on the collaboration between teachers and special educationteachers around pupils with intellectual disabilities integrated in prima

Previous studies show that collaboration between different professions within schools can promote inclusive education. At the same time, there is a limited range of studies on collaboration between teachers and special education teachers. The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge, based on primary school teachers ́ descriptions, about collaboration between primary school teachers and special education teachers regarding integrated pupils, with ID, who are enrolled in adapted schools and are taught entirely or partially in primary school. The questions examine primary school teachers ́ descriptions of collaboration, the opportunities that arise and the obstacles that teachers see in collaboration with special education teachers. The study is based on twelve semi-structures interviews that are coded and thematised according to thematic content analysis. The empirical data is analyzed based on the study ́s theoretical framework, Nilholm ́s (2020) three special educational perspectives. The results shows that primary school teachers consider collaboration with special education teachers to be important in their work with integrated pupils with ID in primary school. All teachers describe the possibility of collaboration primarily based on their own lack of the right skills to teach these pupils, something they belive special education teachers possess. Obstacles that hamper collaboration between the professions consist of time and availability aspects, which require organisational changes. One conclusion drawn is that primary school teachers, regardless of their professional experience feel that they lack sufficient special educational expertise to teach integrated pupils. They therefor need to collaborate through support and guidance from special education teachers who have specific expertise regarding these pupils. This is also mentioned in the research literature. The major difference is that the research literature illuminates collaboration based on different forms of collaboration regarding developing inclusive teaching and schools.