Professional formation of Swedish special education teachers in the tension between formal education at university and informal learning in practice

The aim is to describe special education teacher students’ learning in the field of tension between informal learning during day-to-day work and formal university education. From the theoretical framework of Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner, we perceive the students as moving on a learning trajectory through a landscape of practice. The students visit some of the landscapes of practice and others they ignore. The students are rejected in some landscapes and in others they are welcomed. The students are experiences of identification as well as dis-identification. Quantitative data were generated from surveys with students at the beginning of their training, at the end of their studies, or after graduation. The results of the questionnaire indicate that the length of time the students spent at the university, affected their assessment of their learning during their training. To a small extent the students sought advice from their university teachers concerning teaching issues. The teachers played an important role in their formal learning, whilst their fellow-students and principals influenced the formal and informal learning. This generated a contextual learning highly important to the professional formation of the special education teachers. In the field of tension between formal and informal learning a community of practice appeared.