A few weeks ago I asked why there is no specialist training required to become a Special Education Teacher.

One of the responses challenged the premise of my question:

Why should SETs be specialists at all?

Children with dyslexia, autism, language difficulties, emotional needs and other additional needs spend most of their school day with their class teacher, not their SET.

As one principal put it:
“I don’t just want the SET to know how best to teach the dyslexic child, I want all their teachers to.”

That’s hard to argue with.

But we’re also asking SETs to support an increasingly complex range of needs. And some teachers who responded felt strongly that this requires knowledge and expertise that simply isn’t covered adequately in initial teacher education.

So which direction should we go?

Should we create specialist SETs with additional qualifications and expertise?
Should we concentrate on ensuring every teacher has much better training in special education?
Or, perhaps, do we need both?