Promoting peer interactions in an inclusive preschool in China: what are teachers’ strategies?

ABSTRACT

This study examined strategies teachers applied to promote peer interactions between children with and without Special Educational Needs (SEN) in an inclusive preschool in Shanghai, China. Qualitative case study was used in which seven teachers from four inclusive classrooms participated. In-depth participatory observation and online documents were collected and qualitative content analysis was applied to analyse the data. The key finding suggests both preventive and interventive strategies are identified from five different levels: cooperation with different community stakeholders level; the classroom environment level; the curriculum plan level; the activity design level and the individual children with SEN level. Implications of the findings to promote peer interactions in inclusive early childhood settings and directions for future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• strategies
• peer interactions
• teachers
• inclusive preschools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We use children with SEN and children with disabilities interchangeably.

2 ‘Save the Children’ has initiated some projects to develop inclusive education and has been one of the leading powers to implement inclusion in China.

3 WeChat: WeChat is a mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China.

4 There are 15 teachers from seven classes in the whole kindergarten and they are all female.

5 The shadow teachers are mainly university students majoring in special education and are employed by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to accompany the learning and participation of the children in the general schools (usually starting from primary schools). When placed in the international context, they can be most nearly compared to teacher assistants.

6 FN is short for field notes.

7 IC is short for inclusive classroom.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Run Tan

Run Tan is research associate for inclusive education and teacher education at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Her research targets inclusive teacher training, international comparison of inclusive education, and children’s social and emotional development.

Sonja Perren

Sonja Perren is professor for Development and Education in Early Childhood at the Thurgau University of Teacher Education in Switzerland and the University of Konstanz in Germany. Her research focus on the quality of social interactions (peers and caregivers) and children’s social-emotional development.