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The educational field is traditionally characterized by a distinction between general and special education in educational practice, theory and research. Especially in cross-professional collaborative processes related to inclusion, it becomes evident that the professionals represent different perspectives and positions with different roles, functions and main goals.Based on a research project in Denmark which examines how the collaboration of professionals constitutes in-and exclusion processes, we compare different understandings of aims and problems in the work with inclusion in collaborative school practice with the current models of inclusive education and special education represented in international literature. Our findings show that understandings of problems related to inclusive school development are mainly directed towards strategies targeting and compensating the needs of the student but seldom involve changing the professional practice of teachers and other educators, including their collaboration. Based on this, we argueand present a framework to supportthat inclusive school development involves a process of transforming general and special education into inclusive education, which requires changes in content, teaching methods, approaches, structures, and strategies in education. In order to succeed, classroom practice is only one sub-practice among many sub-practices in a school practice that needs to be transformed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss methodological issues concerning the use of video observation of a single lesson as a supplement to interviews when studying teachers’ practice and competencies. Design/methodology/approach Using a Danish follow-up study focused on teachers’ practice as a jumping-off point, the authors address both opportunities and challenges when triangulating interviews with video observations of a single lesson. The discussion is structured around the four challenges when using video observations presented by Derry et al. (2010), namely selection, technology, analysis and ethics. Findings Based on experiences from the follow-up study, the use of video observations for triangulation has the potential to nuance the meanings ascribed to teachers’ practice. This approach entails productive challenges that can support the more nuanced and diverse perspectives on teachers’ practice if used proactively. Originality/value Although there is a wide body of literature on conducting interviews and observations when studying teachers’ practice, the use of a combination of interviews and video observations is seldom addressed. This paper presents concrete experience of how to capture different aspects of teachers’ practice by triangulating data generated from interviews and from video observations in a research design with limited resources. The authors discuss what to consider when planning and conducting video observations of a single lesson as part of an interview-based study.

The article presents the results of a review of international research investigating mechanisms and processes of inclusion and exclusion as an ongoing part of social practice in a school context. The review forms part of a research project investigating the social practices of inclusive education in primary and lower-secondary education (age 6–16) in public schools as constituted by processes of inclusion and exclusion. The project aims to shift the scientific focus of research in inclusive education from the development of pedagogical and didactic practice to the importance of community construction through inclusion and exclusion processes. The project arises in context of Danish education policy, while the review looked for international research findings on the limits between inclusion and exclusion: how they are drawn, by whom, for what reasons, and for whose benefit? On the background of the review, we conclude that there seems to be a pattern of inclusive school practice leading to a specific social order that limits inclusion. The review also shows that the construction of the ideal student through various kinds of markers has a huge impact on these limits. A twin-track approach that combines research in the development of inclusive learning environments with research in the constitution of social practice in a school context will produce knowledge of the relation between inclusive school practice and the reproduction of social structures and patterns of inequality.

In this article we analyse and discuss how research on inclusion and children at risk can contribute to a more varied and nuanced language on well-being of children. We investigate central concepts relating to inclusion and children at risk and their implications for the language of the professions, i.e. the way the professionals understand and work with children’s well-being. We argue that both fields can benefit from each other’s language and primary focus thus it together with children and families becomes possible to meet in joined effort towards children’s well-being in and across day-care, school and home.