I agree to sit next to you. Does that mean I like you? Measuring using the wrong tapeline – the lack of ‘Social Distance’ measures for inclusive school development and research – a review of the literature

Abstract

This review provides an overview of definitions and measurements of ‘Social Distance’ and attitudes children without disabilities carry towards children with disabilities. Measures include explicit and implicit approaches but clearly, the ‘Bogardus Social Distance Scale’ (A Social Distance Scale, 1933, 14 May 2014) is the most used scale in research, yet it is outdated. For a deeper look into what impacts children's ‘Social Distance’ in inclusive school settings and in order to find measurable constructs, relevant attitude questionnaires are discussed. To bring long‐used measures and attitudes together, a comprehensive model of ‘Social distance’ is introduced. This model integrates the classical view on ‘Social Distance’ as interaction willingness with feelings associated with this interaction and includes attitudes children carry towards individuals and towards the group the interaction partner is believed to belong to. In summary, this paper shows the need for a more comprehensive and precise measure on how school children really engage with one another.

Internalizing Behavior of Sociometrically Neglected Students in Inclusive Primary Classrooms – A Methodological Issue?

“…Koster et al (2009), who point out the multidimensional nature of social inclusion of students with SEN (e.g., interactions, friendships, self-perception of peer-acceptance, etc. ), describe the poor conceptualization and measurement (see also Gerullis and Huber, 2018) to the effect that previous studies deal with the concept of social inclusion (without further specifying it), but use different operationalizations and therefore refer to different dimensions of social inclusion. Hence, inconsistent results could be an effect of different operationalizations.…”

“…The importance of the topic has been emphasized in previous studies, where it is assumed that students with SEN are an at-risk group for social exclusion in mainstream schools (Frostad et al, 2011;Krull et al, 2014;Garrote et al, 2017;Henke et al, 2017). However, proper conceptualization and measurement of social inclusion of students with SEN is the subject of an ongoing debate (Chambers and Kay, 1992;Frederickson et al, 2007;Koster et al, 2009;Gerullis and Huber, 2018).…”

Escala infantil de atitudes sociais em relação à inclusão

“…De fato, esses apontamentos foram evidenciados em estudos realizados em escolas brasileiras, cujos resultados apontam que as atitudes sociais de estudantes com experiência de convívio com colegas PAEE não se diferenciam das atitudes sociais daqueles sem essa experiência (BALEOTTI, 2006;SOUZA, 2014). Estudos realizados na Alemanha, sugerem que o risco de crianças com deficiência serem rejeitadas por seus colegas é três vezes maior do que para crianças sem deficiência (HUBER, 2008 apud GERULLIS;HUBER, 2018;HUBER;WILBERT, 2012 apud GERULLIS;HUBER, 2018).…”