Background:
As the educational landscape rapidly transforms in response to the promotion of inclusive education agendas, it has brought challenges to the management and leadership of provision for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). The role of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), the person responsible for managing and leading SEN in the primary school setting is not defined in Ireland and research relevant to the role is scarce.

Research Aim:
This research applied Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to explore SENCOs’ and principals’ perspectives on the role, and to identify the current profile and practices of SENCOs and the implications for their professional learning in primary schools in Ireland.

Methods and Data Sources:
A two-phase mixed methods sequential explanatory research design (quan + QUAL) was adopted for the study and this paper presents findings from aspects of Phase One which relate to SENCO profiles, and involved a questionnaire to capture SENCO demographics, duties, operations and practices defining the SENCO role. The questionnaire was developed in line with relevant research and gathered information related to the SENCOs’ experience, role, and qualifications. Following piloting of the questionnaire, all primary school SENCOs in Ireland (n = 3,104) were invited to participate and 371 questionnaires were completed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.

Key Findings:
Findings indicate that the majority of SENCOs had over 21 years teaching experience (54.5%) and less than 5 years’ experience as a SENCO (65.5%). Regarding SEN experience, 34.8% had less than 5 years and an additional 32.6% had between 6 and 10 years SEN experience. The majority of SENCOs held postgraduate qualifications (72.3%), which were at postgraduate diploma (37.5%), Masters (32.9%) and PhD level (1.9%). In addition, just less than half of the SENCOs (48.7%) had a SEN specific third-level qualification. Overall, 74.9% of SENCOs indicated that there was a need for a SENCO specific postgraduate programme. Finally, 65.2% of SENCOs indicated that communities of practice was one of their preferred type of teacher professional learning. Despite this, only 38.5% of SENCOs were part of such a community of practice.

Conclusions:
It could be concluded that the SENCOs are experienced teachers with significant qualifications at postgraduate level. While a large percentage have a SEN specific qualification potentially more support is needed from policy makers and teacher educators to ensure that SENCOs have appropriate professional learning available to them. In particular, support is needed at policy level for the development of communities of practice networks for SENCOs to enhance their professional learning and experience. Future research should consider the design, development and implementation of professional learning programmes specific to the needs to the SENCO and their role.

Keywords: SENCO professional development, communities of practice, qualifications, experience.