The Opinions of Mothers of Children with Special Needs Regarding Inclusive Education

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions of mothers who had children with special needs attending inclusive elementary schools regarding inclusive practice. With this purpose, 11 mothers with children attending the first, second and third grades of inclusive elementary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Edirne province were interviewed. In this phenomenological study, the data collected through interviews was analyzed with content analysis. The results showed that the mothers were not adequately knowledgeable on the subject of inclusion. In the study, most of the mothers said that the similarities between the child with special needs and normally developing children were mostly physical, that the orthopedic impairment group could benefit more from inclusion, that adjustments were made in the child's seating in the educational environment and that during the course of inclusion they required educational support services most of all. In addition, most of the mothers experienced various difficulties in inclusive education concerning lessons, enrolling the child to school and class, and transportation of the child to and from the school.

An Investigation on the Opinions of Special Teachers Regarding Inclusion/Integration

“…5 Ceylan and Aral found that most mothers of these children had to face numerous challenges such as inclusive classes, enrolling the child to the school or classroom and the child's transportation. 23 Additionally, Zakaria listed negative perception of the mainstream teachers and peers, peer bullying, exclusion, academic difficulties due to having to follow the regular curriculum as their normally developing peers and lack of parental support among the many challenges included students experience. 33 These problems impact the self-concept of students with special needs.…”

“…Although a review of past research on inclusion yielded numerous studies aimed at examining opinion on inclusion/integration among students at various levels of education, classroom teachers, preschool teachers, science teachers, music teachers, administrators and parents, there were no indepth studies on the opinions of teachers working at special schools, and master's theses and doctoral dissertations mostly adopted the quantitative approach. 3,7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] In this regard, it is critical to determine the opinions of special education teachers on inclusion/integration. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the opinions of teachers employed at special schools concerning inclusion/integration.…”

Η Συμπερίληψη Των Μαθητών Κινεζικής Καταγωγής Στο Ελληνικό Σχολείο

“…Για παράδειγμα, έρευνα των Ceylan & Aral (2016) που έγινε σε δείγμα 11 μητέρων παιδιών με ειδικές εκπαιδευτικές ανάγκες, έδειξε ότι οι συμμετέχουσες μητέρες δεν ήταν σε θέση να εξηγήσουν με ακρίβεια την έννοια της συμπερίληψης, έχοντας στην πραγματικότητα ανεπαρκείς γνώσεις σχετικά με τη συμπεριληπτική εκπαίδευση. Εστίασαν στα κοινά χαρακτηριστικά και τις ομοιότητες που έχουν τα παιδιά τους σε σχέση με τους ομοτίμους τους με τυπική ανάπτυξη, ενώ σε ό,τι αφορά τις διαφορές τις εντοπίζουν κυρίως σε θέματα που αφορούν το ακαδημαϊκό κομμάτι αλλά και τη συμπεριφορά.…”