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Social acceptance and the choosing of favourite classmates: a comparison between students with special educational needs and typically developing students in a context of full inclusion
Author(s) -
Nepi L. D.,
Fioravanti J.,
Nannini P.,
Peru A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of special education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1467-8578
pISSN - 0952-3383
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8578.12096
Subject(s) - inclusion (mineral) , special educational needs , context (archaeology) , special needs , psychology , special education , mathematics education , set (abstract data type) , mainstreaming , pedagogy , social psychology , computer science , paleontology , biology , psychiatry , programming language
Empirical data on the effects of inclusion regarding the social participation of typically developing students and those with special educational needs are still controversial. While some studies suggest that the more extensive the inclusion, the higher the social position of students with special educational needs, evidence from other studies indicates that the full inclusion of students with special educational needs into ordinary schools is not sufficient, per se, to increase their social participation. In this study, we set out to investigate the social position of students with special educational needs and typically developing students studying in regular classroom environments in I talian primary and secondary schools. Given that being accepted is far from the same as being chosen, besides examining rates of acceptance and rejection, we also considered the choices made by students regarding their favourite classmates. The results demonstrated that students with special educational needs are significantly less accepted and are very rarely chosen as favoured classmates by their typically developing counterparts. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.