Exploring Inclusion in a United Kingdom School Dissertation

Exploring Inclusion in a United Kingdom School - Dissertation Example The intention of this study is Inclusion of children with special needs and abilities in schools. Some parents and teachers have different views depending on their situation, as some accept it as a positive educational practice that benefits the included children with special needs as well as mainstream children. On the other hand, others do not agree to combining children with differing abilities and needs. However, breakthroughs in educational research has pushed individuals to acknowledge the practice of inclusion as viable intervention in supporting the development of children with special education needs who are placed in inclusive classrooms. This paper will endeavour to report on explorative research on inclusion in primary schools in the United Kingdom. It reviews related literature on the topic, reporting findings of various studies which mostly include the research methods of observations and interviews. The researcher has gained access to an inclusive classroom as a volunt eer, and in effect, she became a participant observer in the inclusive class. She was not only able to gain information about inclusion in her task as volunteer, but was immersed in the system so she had more in-depth perspective of what it was like to be in an inclusive class. On top of assisting the main teacher, she was vigilant in observing the children’s interactions with each other (how mainstream children interact with children with special needs) and how teachers may have differentiated the mainstream children from the children with special education needs in terms of treatment, planned activities and relationships with them. Research Questions The main research questions that guided this study were the following: Main question: How is inclusion implemented in a UK school? Sub-questions: What are the views of teachers and other adults working in inclusive settings regarding the blending of mainstream children and children with special needs in their classes? Are there any differences in treatment and the given educational programmes for mainstream children and children with special needs within the inclusive classroom? 1 Research Design The researcher was a participant observer in an inclusive school setting. She took down notes on her observations of some classes indoors and the children at play during outdoor play periods. Apart from her observations, she conducted semi-structured interviews