Tensions as a rule: Re-imaging the development of special education by functional system theory

Abstract

This article aims to re-imagine special education through the theoretical lens of functional system theory, tightly connoted with the sociological work of Niklas Luhmann. Regarding this perspective, modern society’s social system is characterized by ‘functional differentiation.’ Its subsystems emerge concerning particular functions. This conceptual approach can be seen as a toolbox to unpack the complex relations of special education organizations, professions, and an academic discipline. First, special education is an organic part of a mass education system. Special education is a strategy of an education system to solve issues of variance of learners’ needs. Second, organization, practice, and special education theory are contextually contingent. Thirdly, inherent frictions can be related to special education functions of serving in two functional systems: a functional system of health and one of education. Employing the case of Sweden and using system theory and re-imagination lens, I show that special education since the 1990s and even before has served as an inclusion project. It was also an issue of constant re-arrangement of special education into the education system by negotiation between medical and pedagogical means. Therefore, in this article I claim that dilemmas and tensions must be the rule.