Social Participation of Students with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Education

Susanne Schwab, Mirna Nel, Frank Hellmich, Susanne Schwab, Mirna Nel, Frank Hellmich

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780429559211
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book provides deep insight into the social situation of students with different kinds of special needs in various European countries. Research findings concerning students' attitudes towards peers with disabilities, and teachers' feedback on students' social behaviour, are also presented.

Full inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream education requires equity in each student's chances for academic and social-emotional development, and their participation in society. In the context of inclusive education, it is important to take students' social participation into consideration. Are students with special educational needs (SEN) accepted by their peers? Do they interact with their peers during breaks and classes? Do they have friends, or do they feel lonely in their class? This book seeks to answer such questions, seeing social participation as a crucial ingredient, as well as an outcome, of inclusive education. This topic is critical because many previous studies show students with SEN having a high risk of social exclusion.

This volume will be of interest to everyone studying special needs education, especially those concerned with future improvement of social participation for all students. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Special Needs Education.

Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

OPEN ACCESS

Student voices on social exclusion in general primary schools

R. R. de Leeuw, A. A. de Boer and A. E. M. G. Minnaert

ABSTRACT

Advocates of inclusive education argue that the social inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) increases when they are educated with typically developing peers. However, research indicates that this is not apparent for all students with SEN. Students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) are often socially excluded. To understand the situation of these students, their voices should be heard. The aim of the current explorative study was to gain insight into: (1) the experiences of students with SEBD regarding victimisation and social exclusion, and (2) the approaches they applied and preferred resolving social problems. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 socially excluded students from grades 5 and 6, attending general (N = 6) and segregated special (N = 21) primary education. The participants were prompted to talk about their own experiences using hypothetical scenarios. The interviews were analysed using a multi-grounded theory approach. The results show that students preferred different approaches to resolving these social problems than the applied approaches. They would have liked to have seen their peers and teachers to show more initiative. In line with these results, the need to listen to the students’ voices are emphasised.

Introduction

The trend for more inclusive education for students with special educational needs (SEN) in general education has meant that such students can now enrol at general schools in their own neighbourhoods. For many European countries, this inclusive education trend started with the signing of agreements such as the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO 1994) and the UNCRPD of 2006. These statements stress that the educational and social needs of all students should be met, which is clearly stated in Article 24 UNCRPD (2006): ‘effective individualised support measures are provided in environments that maximise academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion’. The Netherlands is one of the 174 countries which has signed and ratified the UNCRPD, which recommends that education policies should aim to support students with SEN as appropriately as possible in regular education. The active participants in the development of inclusive education are policy-makers, school boards, teachers and parents, who therefore influence the students’ everyday lives (Woodhead and Faulkner 2000). This practice does not accord with the advice of Rose and Shevlin (2004), who advocate that implementations, interventions and future developments have a better chance of being effective if students’ voices are listened to, because the needs and perspectives of the students will be included in the development of their education. This explorative study aims to gain better understanding of experiences of socially excluded primary school students with social and emotional problems and behavioural difficulties (SEBD), and to uncover which social problem-solving approaches these students use and prefer to resolve social exclusion.

Advocates of inclusive education argue that the development and potential of students with SEN improve when they are educated with typically developing (TD) peers because they are afforded more social opportunities. Inclusive education should result in more reciprocal relationships and interactions, greater acceptance and positive self-perceptions among students with SEN and their TD peers (Koster et al. 2009). However, empirical findings indicate that some students with SEN experience difficulties building positive relationships, or face rejection when trying to interact with TD peers, resulting in victimisation and social exclusion (Ladd et al. 2012; Newcomb, Bukowski, and Pattee 1993; Ruijs, Peetsma, and van der Veen 2010). In particular, students with SEBD do not automatically benefit from the social opportunities offered by inclusive education (Chamberlain, Kasari, and Rotheram-Fuller 2007; Guralnick et al. 2007; de Monchy, Pijl, and Zandberg 2004). Students with SEBD tend to report higher rates of social exclusion in terms of fewer friendships and higher rates of loneliness and victimisation (Adderley et al. 2015). Socially excluded students are at higher risk of experiencing increased negative academic and social outcomes, such as early school drop-out, criminality and depression (Kauffman and Landrum 2012; Ruijs, Peetsma, and van der Veen 2010; Thompson and Morris 2016). These negative outcomes are diametrically opposed to the intended aims of inclusive education and, as a consequence, act to prevent inclusion from working efficaciously.

The classification of students as having social, emotional problems and behavioural difficulties, either from a clinical diagnosis or from receiving extra educational support, is based on a combination of student behaviours, including socially less accepted approaches to resolving social problems (American Psychiatric Association 2013; Thompson and Morris 2016). In line with the Dutch policy called ‘Education that fits’ (free translation), the current study used the following operational definition for SEBD: the student has received a formal diagnosis or has been indicated by teachers or the school team as having social, emotional or behavioural difficulties and is receiving extra educational support as a result ( Wet Passend Onderwijs 2012). Both the internationally accepted classification of students as having SEBD and the Dutch definition imply that SEBD will have a negative impact on students’ social inclusion because of their characteristics. This negative impact might explain the lower levels of social inclusion of students with SEBD in the West compared to their peers with SEN (Guralnick et al. 2007). Students with SEBD apply more frequently social problem-solving approaches such as physical and verbal aggression or withdrawal from social situations (Gumpel and Sutherland 2010; Kauffman and Landrum 2012; Newcomb, Bukowski, and Pattee 1993; Rose and Asher 1999). These approaches to resolving social problems are less readily accepted by their TD peers (Newcomb, Bukowski, and Pattee 1993) and are known to affect their relationships with TD peers and teachers negatively (American Psychiatric Association 2013; Cooper and Cefai 2013; Kauffman and Landrum 2012; Newcomb, Bukowski, and Pattee 1993; Thomas 2013). Little is known about what students with SEBD themselves think about the social problem-solving approaches they apply and whether these students prefer other social problem-solving approaches.

One explanation for this knowledge gap is that the students’ voices are often neglected in studies on improving their social inclusion, regardless of whether or not they have SEBD. For example, the measurement of student social inclusion is commonly conducted using teacher reports (e.g. Bauminger and Kasari 2000) or sociometric data (e.g. Frostad and Pijl 2007). Avramidis and colleagues (2017) have pointed out some methodological inconsistencies when assessing social participation. Sociometric data alone only depicts a student’s social participation within the classroom, and excludes friendships outside the classroom (Avramidis et al. 2017). Another critical point is that teacher and peer reports are indirect measurements and rarely consider the perspective or voice of the excluded students. Article 12 UNCRC (UNESCO 1994) states that students have the right to express their views on every matter which affects them (Unicef 1989). Although there is an increasing trend towards listening to student voices (e.g. Herz and Haertel 2016), research specifically including students with SEBD and addressing their perspectives on social exclusion continues to be rare (Cefai and Cooper 2010; Michael and Frederickson 2013). Moreover, despite acknowledging that the views of students with SEBD are important, that they are experts on their own situation and can contribute to educational initiatives, policies and research which influence their education (Michael and Frederickson 2013; Rose and Asher 2004; Woodhead and Faulkner 2000), there is a lack of knowledge about the perspectives of primary school students with SEBD. Studies which do include the voices of young students with SEBD focus on the students’ perspectives on the impact of inclusive education (Adderley et al. 2015; Mowat 2015) or on the consequences of victimisation due to bullying (Brown Hajdukova, Hornby, and Cushman 2016; Messiou 2012), but have not yet considered what the students think about how social inclusion could be realised in the classroom.

The actions and responses of the TD peers and teachers of students with SEBD should also be taken into account, in addition to the students’ own characteristics and approaches to resolving social problems. Research has indicated that TD peers and teachers have generally negative attitudes towards students with SEBD (De Boer et al. 2012a). The attitudes of TD students are found to play a role in the social accepta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction — Social participation of students with special educational needs
• 1. Student voices on social exclusion in general primary schools
• 2. School segregation and social participation: the case of Norwegian children with physical disabilities
• 3. The quality of experience of students with and without special educational needs in everyday life and when relating to peers
• 4. Social participation and friendship quality of students with special educational needs in regular Greek primary schools
• 5. Does social exclusion by classmates lead to behaviour problems and learning difficulties or vice versa? A cross-lagged panel analysis
• 6. The relationship between class attitudes towards peers with a disability and peer acceptance, friendships and peer interactions of students with a disability in regular secondary schools
• 7. The impact of social referencing on social acceptance of children with disabilities and migrant background: an experimental study in primary school settings
• Index