The Norwegian educational and psychological counselling service (EPS) as an ‘inclusion agent’ in schools?

Abstract

This article focuses on the schools’ support service related to the Nordic ambition of inclusive education. This ambition entails a somewhat conflicted mandate, which both the schools and the support service find demanding to ensure in their collaboration. As a framework for discussing challenges and opportunities linked to a case study in Norway, the article also shows how this appears in Sweden and Denmark. The question is whether it is possible, through new forms of meetings, to develop an innovative collaboration on inclusive practice between the Norwegian Educational and Psychological Counselling Service and schools. The article builds on selected data from a larger project, using a cross-unit analysis to compare experiences from two different types of collaboration meetings in two different Norwegian municipalities. By this, we have searched for an understanding of the central prerequisites to succeed. The most significant finding is the importance of a leadership which is, under innovative conditions, capable of creating necessary psychological safety to develop the meetings towards real professional learning communities. Finally, the apparently persistent challenges of designing a suitable support service to realise inclusive education in the Nordic countries are discussed in light of a current Norwegian strategy called ‘The Competence Boost for Special Education and Inclusive Practice’.