“Why did our kids become out-of-school children?” A narrative inquiry of parents of children with severe and multiple disabilities in China informed by game theory

Children with severe and multiple disabilities (SMD) becoming out-of-school children (OOSC) is a common issue in developing countries. Researchers have reported that the out-of-school issue results from multiple factors; however, few studies have explored how the interactions of these factors lead to children becoming OOSC. This study aimed to explore the causes of out-of-school issues among children with SMD in China based on game theory. Interview data from six parents of children with SMD who had become OOSC were collected as the primary source of research data, with interview data from school personnel at the six schools that children with SMD in our study had attended or applied to, education policy documents for children with SMD, and relevant news as secondary sources of research data. Narrative inquiry and thematic analysis were combined to investigate the out-of-school experiences of children with SMD and analyze how the strategic interactions of three “players” (i.e., the policy, schools, and families) led to these children becoming OOSC. The findings indicated that the three players successively interacted with each other by adopting different strategies to pursue their respective goals, and the families of children with SMD inferred by reverse induction that no strategy they adopted would change the outcome of their children becoming OOSC if the strategies of the other players were unchanged. Finally, an innovative cooperation model with an emphasis on the interactions of all players is proposed to address the out-of-school crisis.