Abstract
This institutional ethnography exploration begins with the standpoint of educators and focuses on the work related to ways students in Sweden exit the separate compulsory school for students with intellectual disability (CSID) and re-enter the regular compulsory school form through a student referral unit (SRU). By exploring what appears to puzzle the education system at the local level, this study contributes to a growing body of research on addressing multilingualism as a disability. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic data, the study moves beyond educators’ experience to a broader inquiry into the ruling relations that coordinate the creation of misplaced students. The active texts that hook into the educators’ work include iterations of the Swedish School Act stipulations on the medical, psychological, social, and pedagogical assessments required for enrollment in CSID, and their connections to the curriculum. Drawing on the work of Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith and scholars who examine everyday work in special education, this study clarifies how students are misplaced. Locating the disjuncture in educators’ everyday work reveals how educators constructively resist at the line of fault between practice and policy. The discourse of survival of (mis)placement points towards actionable recommendations concerning assessment, enrollment, and placement at the curricular divide in and between special education units.
Recommended Citation
Adams Lyngback, Liz; Paul, Enni; and Headman, Christina
(2026)
"Student (mis)placement in Swedish special education provision through intellectual disability labeling: The educator standpoint,"
Journal of Institutional Ethnography: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/journalofinstitutionalethnography/vol1/iss1/2
Included in
Disability and Equity in Education Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons