Special education – a concept in the eye of the hurricane

Abstract

Special education is generally considered to be special branch of education or educational research. The concept has existed for a long time in Sweden, a little more than a century and the original meaning of the concept has been to give special education as an addition or compensatory alternative to the regular education to people who from different reasons cannot, will not or may not follow so called regular or ordinary education 100%. In this paper we will look at the development of the concept in Sweden and how it has come to relate especially to concepts like inclusion and equity (Richardsson, 1977).