Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs最新文献

Interviewing students with special needs (SSNs) comes with a unique set of ethical and practical challenges that require highly specialised skills and interviewing protocols. Our objectives were to identify the most appropriate tools for collecting data from SSNs, key differences in interviewing students with and without special needs, and ethical and practical challenges during it. The ultimate goal was to develop ethical considerations and interviewing protocols for SSNs (ECIP4SSN). It was done through a two-step Delphi method, collecting data from 11 special education experts from 11 different countries. The experts believed the tools should be selected based on the study's nature; however, many of them preferred the interviews. They believed that interviewing special students is challenging due to their special needs. Challenges pertaining to consent, hyperactivity, emotional distress, and wrong and irrelevant answers were among the top challenges mentioned by them. Final ECIP4SSN consisted of the key ethical considerations and interviewing protocols i.e. obtaining the background information and support, training and preparations, consent, data collection, building rapport, emotional support, confidentiality, and anonymity, using supporting tools, language, methods of asking questions and validating responses. The ECIP4SSN will guide the university teachers, students and researchers in interviewing special students.

This study examined teachers' concerns about including students with disabilities (SWDs) in regular classrooms and identified the background variables that were significantly associated with their concerns. A total of 1008 primary school teachers from 236 schools across all 25 provinces and cities in Cambodia participated in the study. The Concern about Inclusive Education Scale (CIES) was used as a research instrument. Descriptive statistics, a principal component analysis, reliability tests, Pearson correlation coefficients and a multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis. The result of the principal component analysis confirmed a four-factor model for the CIES. The study found that Cambodian teachers had high levels of concern about including SWDs in regular classrooms. They expressed the deepest concerns about the inadequate availability of special education instructional materials and teaching aids, the lack of knowledge and skills required to teach SWDs, the increased workloads and the challenges of providing equal attention to all students. The experience of inclusive education training, years of teaching in regular classrooms, and experience of teaching SWDs were significantly associated with their concerns about inclusion. The findings were discussed with practical implications for improved policy and practice to address Cambodian teachers' concerns and promote their inclusive practices.

Special education plays a critical role in ensuring equal educational opportunities for individuals with diverse learning needs. In the context of Jordan, the development of special education has made significant progress over the years, reflecting the country's commitment to inclusivity and diversity, with notable efforts from the government and various stakeholders to enhance the inclusivity and accessibility of education for students with disabilities (SWDs). This scoping review aims to explore the reality of special education development in Jordan, and identify the challenges faced in implementing an effective model. By conducting a comprehensive literature search, analysing relevant government and non-government reports and studies, this research aims to shed light on historical context, policies, progress made, practices and highlight existing challenges and gaps, and propose potential solutions to enhance special education practices in the field of special education in Jordan. This study emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and implementation of effective strategies to enhance education services for SWDs in the country. By exploring relevant literature, this research also intends to create a roadmap for policymakers and stakeholders to enhance special education services in Jordan and promote a more supportive environment for learners with diverse needs.

Research on inclusion in early childhood educational (ECE) settings points to the need for a deeper understanding of professionals' perceptions of the dilemmas and challenges situated in the varying contexts of these settings. Viewing inclusion as a complex phenomenon, this study uses the Deweyan theory of democracy as a lived experience to describe how professionals in three ECE settings understand the values of inclusion and democracy and how these values are enacted in their everyday practices of creating democratic communities. Three case studies were conducted, including individual interviews with head teachers, focus-group interviews with professionals and semi-structured observations in three ECE settings. The results show that the three settings present unique prerequisites and challenges for the building of democratic communities related to the varying views on inclusion and democracy. The understandings of values of inclusion and democracy and how these are enacted in the three ECE settings are discussed with regard to the possibilities and obstacles involved in the creation of democratic communities.

Currently, schools in the United States are highly diversified and integrated. In other words, the integration of students representing multiple identities and positionalities existing in the same educational spaces is much more common. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary school principals' perspectives on inclusive education. Grounded in social constructionism, the research design was a descriptive case study positioned using qualitative methodology. The primary data sources were semi-structured one-on-one Zoom interviews with four elementary school principals from the Midwestern region of the United States; and researchers' reflexive notes in order to understand how principals understand and deploy inclusion within their respective schools. Based on thematic analysis, in this paper, we constructed the following interrelated themes: (a) building discourses around inclusion from prior educational experiences; (b) culturally responsive leadership as a practice to inclusion; (c) collective feelings of safety, comfort and harmony and (d) the negotiation of privilege. These themes highlighted that the conceptualization and implementation of inclusion heavily prioritize the perspectives of professionals within schools rather than those of the individuals being included.

This study evaluates an intervention program that uses mobile learning, designed for Israeli Arab hearing-impaired elementary school students, focused on language and mathematics. Participants included 23 hearing-impaired students, 39 teachers, and 46 parents. The evaluation combined quantitative and qualitative methods, using questionnaires, knowledge mapping, observations, individual semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Findings revealed: (1) integrating mobile learning promoted learning enjoyment of learning, and satisfaction with program implementation; (2) content knowledge development contributed to mathematical knowledge and all language components except grammar; (3) inequality among students persisted since only hearing-impaired students benefited from the program, leading to another kind of inequality; (4) teachers coped with various challenges: lack of technological skills, need for differential teaching for different populations in the classroom, and general lack of attention in the classroom when using apps with audible instructions and (5) parents have vital role in implementing new learning approaches for special needs students.

Friendships and social relationships are central to wellbeing but the friendships of those with complex needs are often ignored. This study explored the friendships and social relationships of students with complex communication needs (CCN) in and outside of special school settings, to understand how they view and experience them. There were 20 participants—6 students, 8 of their parents and 6 of their teachers. The research was conducted in two stages: Stage 1 included semi-structured interviews with adults and unstructured observations of students in class and at breaktimes. Stage 2 included working with students through a Mosaic approach, using six tools (pyramid ranking activity, preferred activity with friends cards, best friends activity, school tours, collections from home and book-making). Transcripts of recordings were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The four themes generated highlight how students with CCN have more accurate views of their social lives than adults, students and adults have differing views about what makes a good friend, students with CCN find ways to enact meaningful social contact through a connection beyond words, and reciprocity in friendships means no distinction between ‘helper’ and ‘needing help’. Strengths and limitations are highlighted and implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

The aims of this study were the investigation of the transition knowledge-skills of adolescents and young adults with visual impairments, learning difficulties, or mobility impairments, and the impact of disability, individual characteristics, social support, and self-esteem, on their transition knowledge-skills. Apart from the questionnaire concerning the demographic/ individual characteristics of the participants, three more instruments were used: (a) the Transition Planning Inventory-2, (b) the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS), and (c) the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. The sample consisted of 169 youths with disabilities. The variable “disability” is a statistically significant predictor of transition knowledge-skills. The total transition knowledge-skills of participants with mobility impairments were worse than those of participants with learning difficulties and those of participants with visual impairments. Participants' transition knowledge-skills were better when the received close friends' social support was higher. The findings of the present study also indicate that the self-esteem of young people with disabilities has a positive effect on their transition knowledge-skills. Moreover, the age of the participants, the number of their siblings and their parents' educational level influence their transition knowledge-skills.

The social inclusion of learners with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools has been a dominant discourse in global education and academic research. Concerns have been raised globally, and in England, that learners with SEN underachieve compared with non-SEN learners. Studies have linked challenges faced by learners with SEN to inadequate training of teachers, delayed intervention and the lack of clarity in educational policies relating to learners with SEN. This paper draws on Carol Bacchi's (2009) ‘What is the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) framework to analyse 10 policy documents relating to the education of learners with SEN in mainstream schools in England. This analysis aims to identify ‘problems’, tensions and gaps in educational policies relating to learners with SEN and to establish the effectiveness of these policies in addressing the social inclusion of learners with SEN in mainstream schools. The analysis revealed that the educational policies create ‘problems’ for learners with SEN due to their outcomes-focused approach. There is little consideration given to inclusive education and the social inclusion of learners with SEN in mainstream schools. This paper argues that for successful social inclusion of learners with SEN, policies must prioritise empowering teachers to effectively promote inclusive education.

The use of multi-sensory data collection tools with children in special and inclusive education is increasing in popularity. Many studies in this area have highlighted the potential for photography, drawings and other visual data collection methods to capture children's perspectives on inclusive practice. However, these tools are likely to be less successful in generating accurate findings if the data arising from them are not effectively interpreted by the researcher. There is a need to highlight appropriate ways to involve child participants as collaborators throughout the research process, with the aim of better accessing the understandings contained in multi-sensory data collected from children as participants. This paper presents and explores the findings from an empirical participatory study, piloting a multi-sensory research approach involving children identified with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) in an English primary school. ‘Research conversations’ were found to be a highly appropriate way of ensuring that important multi-perspective understandings contained in visual forms of data are better accessed by the researcher, highlighting the importance of involving child participants as collaborators in an iterative analysis process.