Promoting Social Inclusion in Educational Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The goal of the current paper is to provide a critical analysis of barriers to social inclusion in schools and propose inclusive educational practices that help connect and unite diverse students.Diversity is defined broadly as overall heterogeneity. We review theoretical frameworks that help explain group dynamics and contextual conditions that contribute to exclusion (i.e., peer victimization, rejection, friendlessness) of students based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, body weight, etc. We argue that to be able to facilitate peer acceptance and cross-group friendships,

Weight Stigma in the School Setting: The Role of Inclusive Weight Climate—A Commentary

“…Whereas higher body weight was a risk factor for lower standardized test performance in middle schools where students had less weight diversity, students' BMI was unrelated to their achievement test scores in schools where students had greater variation in body weight . Such findings are consistent with the idea that diversity defuses the salience of particular norms, and thereby, facilitates inclusion . Thus, school weight diversity may function as a stigma‐reduction mechanism to decrease weight‐based achievement disparities …”

“…For example, one study indicates that students are less likely to be bullied for their weight at schools with gay‐straight/gender‐sexuality alliances . In addition, recognizing the teacher's role in modeling inclusive behaviors during teacher education diversity trainings (where body weight discussions often are absent) may help to address negative weight‐related stereotypes commonly held by teachers (eg, that students with overweight are lazy, unsuccessful, and unintelligent) . This is especially critical given that teachers' (dis)liking of particular students can affect the degree to which peers include or exclude that student …”

Social Acceptance in Inclusive Classrooms: The Role of Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion and Classroom Management

“…It can be assumed that these classroom management routines prevented disruptive behavior (Kostewicz et al, 2008) and thus prevented a negative perception of students with disruptive behavior, which in turn affected the social acceptance level in the classroom. Finally, the results also highlight the importance of teachers' awareness of social dynamics in the classroom and of their unique position to support social experiences of students in the peer group with adequate classroom management practices (Farmer et al, 2019;Juvonen et al, 2019).…”

“…There is a large body of evidence focusing on the effect of the teacher on academic development, such as student learning processes and cognitive outcomes (e.g., Hattie, 2009). In recent years, researchers have also examined the extent to which teaching practices contribute to the social experiences of students within their peer group and hence to their socio-emotional development (e.g., Farmer et al, 2011;Juvonen et al, 2019). More specifically, Farmer et al (2011) introduced the concept of the "invisible hand" into the research discourse.…”

Bystander behaviors in peer victimization : Associations with moral disengagement, efficacy beliefs, and student-teacher relationship quality

“…Indeed, findings indicate that students high in moral disengagement are less likely to defend victims of peer victimization (Doramajian & Bukowski, 2015;Gini, 2006;Gini et al, 2011;Obermann, 2011;Thornberg & Jungert, 2013;Thornberg et al, 2015;Thornberg, Wänström, Hong & Espelage, 2017). Regarding passive bystanding, findings are mixed (for a meta-analysis, see Killer et al, 2019), with both positive associations (Doramajian & Bukowski, 2015;Thornberg, Wänström, Hong, & Espelage, 2017), negative associations (Gini, 2006;Thornberg & Jungert, 2013), and null results (Gini et al, 2015). Nevertheless, research suggests that passive bystanders have higher levels of moral disengagement than defenders (Gini, 2006;Levasseur et al, 2017;Obermann, 2011).…”