It is especially true when spoken in the context of inclusive education and children with special education needs.
Learners with special needs and social participation
Prof Schwab reckons that when one thinks of low social participation within the inclusive education classroom, one tends to forget that being different can lead to being less liked. In light of this, Prof Schwab’s research examines what can be done to foster the future of inclusive education and to subsequently make it work for all learners. She specifically focuses on the social and emotional development of students and on attitudes towards inclusive education.
“Inclusive education gives students with special educational needs the chance to interact with their peers,” says Prof Schwab. “However, there continues to be great concern about their achievement and development, and about whether or not they are receiving the right resources and support in the inclusive class room.
Another concern that she highlights is the question of whether or not students without special needs get less attention from the teacher than their counterparts with special needs.
In answering the question of why students with special educational needs show a higher risk of low social participation, Prof Schwab shares some interesting research findings, namely that learners with better peer relations are seemingly less depressed. The tendency to leave school early is also lower among learners who have good peer relations in the classroom.
According to Prof Schwab the behaviour of a special needs learner plays an important role in social participation. “These learners employ less social skills than their peers.”
Closely linked to this is the learner-teacher interaction. When the teacher puts the spotlight on a learner’s needs, it also puts that learner’s disability in the spotlight, resulting in classmates ignoring the learner. “Another reason may be the specific didactics employed by a school,” says Prof Schwab.
Finding practical solutions
Prof Schwab suggests a few practical solutions to the problem of low social participation in the inclusive classroom:
- She recommends an intervention that looks to improve the social skills of the learners with special needs and their peers.
- The role of teacher feedback is also of pivotal importance. When receiving positive feedback, the learner is seen as liked by the teacher. In turn his/her peers are much more likely to like him/her.
- The didactics employed by a school may also be an aspect in need of investigating. For example, setting up the inclusive classroom for cooperative learning forces not only a higher level of collaboration and interaction, but also a higher quantity thereof.
A leaner with a disability can still have the same interests as a learner without a disability. Two very different learners can have a lot in common. The best intervention may be found in Prof Schwab’s closing statement:
“Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see. We all are special and we all have different needs. All we need is the kindness of others to find our special place in the world.”
About Prof Schwab
Since 2016, Prof Susanne Schwab is a professor in the School of Education of the Institute of Educational Research at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and an extraordinary professor at Optentia. Her research specifically focuses on methods and didactics for learners with learning disabilities and learners with emotional or social difficulties.
She studied psychology, social pedagogy and gender studies at the University of Graz, Austria. In 2015, she received her Venia Legendi (habilitation; dealing with inclusive education) from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. From October 2014 until March 2015 she worked as interim professor at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.
From left are Prof Mirna Nel, Prof Linda du Plessis, Prof Susanne Schwab, Prof Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy and Prof Ian Rothmann.
