Employing Social Network Analysis to Examine the Social Participation of Students Identified as Having Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

ABSTRACT

The number of students with identified Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools has been rising in the last three decades, primarily due to policy changes promoting inclusive education. However, many of these students remain socially isolated despite expectations that inclusion may lead to enhanced outcomes, particularly social outcomes. This paper draws on a study conducted in three countries; Cyprus, Spain, and Switzerland. A critical case study design, grounded in social capital theory, was adopted to examine the concept of social participation from a social network perspective in six Grade 4 classrooms, two in each country. Data were collected through 109 network surveys. Network maps for each classroom were developed, and social network measures were calculated. The findings from each case/classroom were encouraging in terms of the social participation of students with SEND and have provided a layer for understanding social responsiveness and inclusion of each classroom. The social participation for many students with SEND was found to be comparable to peers without SEND.

KEYWORDS:

• Case study design
• inclusion
• social network analysis
• social participation
• special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the students who completed the survey, and all their teachers who participated in this study. Additionally, all research assistants deserve a huge thank you for their time collecting and managing the data, including Jairo Rodriguez Medina, Lucia Jimenez Martin, and Petra Schallert.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 660607;H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions [660607].