Study with us

Education in Special Education aims to develop the ability to work with children, young people and adults in need of special support. We want to be involved and create conditions for learning and good development for everyone. We do this by paying attention to the needs that exist and critically examining the conditions in different educational environments.

Photo: Niklas Björling

Education in Special Education is based on research with a broad interdisciplinary basis. The educations gives you the opportunity to develop your pedagogical ability to create conditions for learning and good development for all. Studies in Special Education take place against the background of current education policy, changes in society, individuals' own  social situation, various disabilities, diversity and gender. All of our courses, except one, are at the moment given exclusively in the Swedish launguage. Read about our international course. Work is also underway for more courses in English at the department.  

Our courses and programmes

In our courses and programmes, you get tools for analyzing children's and young people's risk situations and how you and others can prevent such situations from occurring. The independent courses and programmes are aimed at anyone interested in Special Educational issues.

The Special Needs Teacher programme (Speciallärarprogrammet) is aimed at teachers who want to deepen their pedagogical and didactic competence with a focus on children, young people and adults in need of special support. The Special Educators programme (Specialpedagogprogrammet) is aimed at teachers who want to work with Special Education issues together with their colleagues and management and contribute to the development of the educational activities.

We also have a master's program that aims to provide depth expertise in applied behavior analysis and autism spectrum disorders.

From Autum 2020 it is also possible to take a master's degree in Special Education by studying independent courses.

Courses in all Teacher programmes at the University

All Teacher programmes given at the University include reading courses in Special Education. Teachers need to be prepared to teach all children and young people, including children with disabilities. In our Special Education courses, a skill is developed in working pedagogically with, among others, students, colleagues, parents and school organizations. This is to create conditions for good development and learning.

Doctoral programme

Anyone who wants to further immerse themselves in the research field of Special Education can attend our Doctoral programme. We also have a Graduate School in Special Education (Forskarskola i specialpedagogik), in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, Jönköping University and Linköping University. It is focused on early intervention in learning environments within preschool and during the first school years.