Contributions from: Alan Dyson - UK, Sip Jan Pilj - Netherlands and Pilar Arnaiz - Spain
Abstract
With the continued movement towards the education of all children, including those with a range of special needs in regular classrooms, there has been a concurrent change in the role of the support teacher to help implement this. Traditionally support teachers provided assistance by withdrawing students for small group or individual remedial programs. The current trend promoted by most education departments is for a more collaborative approach between the support teacher and the regular class teacher that involves providing professional guidance rather than actual implementation of modified programs. Although this appears to be the suggested focus, there is still considerable variation in the support teacher's role at international, national and local levels.
This research investigated the role of support teachers in three countries, namely Australia, England and Norway. Discussion focuses on the similarities and differences in roles for support teachers in these countries. Consideration is also given to the concerns raised by support teachers regarding what they consider to be an expanding need for their services in a market that is needing to rationalise and work within ever tightening and constrained educational budgets.
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