Social Inclusion

Promoting Factors of Social Inclusion of Students With Special Educational Needs

The idea of inclusion in the sense of participatory access to educational opportunities is widely acknowledged and implemented within the pedagogical discourse. Nevertheless, ensuring social participation of students with and without special education needs in learning situations continues to be challenging.The participation of students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular schools is frequently disputed on the grounds that their social inclusion is failing. SEN students in regular schools were identified as being more lonely than their non-SEN classmates , having fewer friends and interactions with peers , and being more likely to be bullied . These concerns arise from studies comparing SEN students to non-SEN students, using measures of social inclusion that are based on sociometric methods and observational data. Social inclusion is defined in these studies as the presence of reciprocal friendships, interactions between SEN and non-SEN students, the social status of SEN students as perceived by non-SEN students, and the acceptance of SEN students by their classmates.