Inclusive research with people with learning disabilities often involves audio-recording interviews. However, although barely acknowledged in the literature, participants may not understand that every word recorded will be scrutinised forensically, from which possibly erroneous conclusions may be drawn. This paper describes an alternative method:…

Social participation of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is a central topic in the current inclusion debate. Numerous studies have shown that the risk of social exclusion is considerably higher for children with SEN compared to their peers without SEN, especially for pupils with behaviour problems (BP) or learning difficulties (LD).…

This study explores the conditions that limit social participation for children with physical disabilities, and in particular, how school segregation practices affect participation in formal and informal after-school activities. In a sample of 491 children, to varying degrees, a majority of the children were taken out of ordinary classroom…

This article analyses the university experiences of 44 students with disabilities. The voices of Spanish students describe the reasons that lead them to choose a given university degree, their transition in the university, the perception they have of themselves as students and how they evaluate their academic results. This study was done with the…

This paper reports on the findings of an action research project that took place in a primary school in Cyprus. A professional development programme was devised with contributions from teachers involved in the research. The programme was aimed at helping teachers to map the difficulties they encounter when working with their students on…

This article reports and discusses findings from an ethnographic case study, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of how different children perceive their learning environment in the first grade of primary school, with regard to social as well as academic aspects. The theoretical framework is based on an interactional perspective, where…

The transition to adulthood poses one of the most complex challenges for young people with intellectual disabilities. In order to conduct a wide-reaching and in-depth study of this process, we need to know the views of these young people themselves and their families. This article presents research designed to collect the experiences and…

The context of Special Education is a privileged space to study participation. Most professionals and teachers have long assumed the participation and collaboration with families as a central tenet of their interventions. On the other hand, parents with children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have also been described as being permanently…

This paper reports a small-scale research project which took place in one primary school in the north-east of England. The study aimed to listen to children's views about how the practices of teachers helped and/or hindered their sense of inclusion in classrooms. Inclusion was understood here in a broad sense rather than specifically relating to…

This article presents the findings of ethnographic case studies of three girls on the autistic spectrum attending mainstream primary schools and illustrates the difficulties they experience and the ways in which these are often unrecognised. The observations of the girls and subsequent individual interviews with their mothers, class teachers,…

While much progress has been made in relation to including students in mainstream education in Ireland, significant challenges remain. Despite positive attitudes, the implementation of effective inclusive practice at school level persists as one of the most pervasive challenges. This study investigated how six Irish schools, three primary and…

Compared with many European countries, Finland has a shorter history of immigration. During the last 20?years, Finland has become a more multicultural society. Together with rising levels of immigration, teachers' concerns regarding how to manage an increasingly diverse school population have arisen. There are an increasing number of students with…

This paper reports on the development of a framework for the classification of local school ideologies in relation to inclusion that provides a tool for classifying the general educational direction as well as work with pupils in need of special support of individual schools. The framework defines different aspects of local school ideology in…

This paper reports findings from an 18-month qualitative study that followed the experiences of nine teacher residents, their site professors, site coordinators, clinical teachers and principals in three professional learning schools. The study examined the tensions that emerged as teacher preparation theory intersected with the context-bound…

According to Blatchford, learning support assistants (LSA) in schools within England comprise of a quarter of their workforce. In recent years, the inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream school settings has seen significant rises. Furthermore, the English government has raised expectations on the amount of…