Simply academic? Why children with special educational needs don’t like school

Abstract

International studies have raised concerns about the academic and social implications of inclusive policies on school engagement and successful learning and, in particular, on the ways in which friendships are formed between students with SEN and other students. This article stems from research findings which show that Irish children with special educational needs like school less than their peers without SEN in mainstream settings. Using data from a large scale longitudinal study of 8578 9-year-olds, this paper uses a child centred research approach to investigate why this is the case particularly when they are in receipt of supports. To do this, we focus on processes underlying their dislike of school such as their academic engagement and social/peer relations. We measure academic engagement by looking at their interest in the subjects mathematics and reading and the extent to which they complete their homework. We examine the social/peer relations of students with special educational needs by assessing the extent to which they report liking their teacher. Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Scale and the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale we also examine the nature of peer relations among children with special educational needs in mainstream settings. Both academic engagement and social engagement play a central role in understanding the broader school engagement of children with special educational needs. By simultaneously examining the role of academic and social relations in shaping the engagement of children with SEN, the analysis provides a unique opportunity to fundamentally assess the barriers to true inclusion for children with special needs.

Keywords:

• special educational needs
• inclusive education
• school engagement
• academic engagement
• peer relations

Acknowledgements

Growing Up in Ireland data have been funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs; have been collected under the Statistics Act, 1993, of the Central Statistics Office. The project has been designed and implemented by the joint ESRI-TCD Growing Up in Ireland Study Team. © Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Notes

1. The measure of ‘liking school’ is held to be a relatively more stable construct than independent measures such as teacher relations and peer relations, which are perhaps more subject to fluctuation over time. For this reason, liking school is identified as the outcome measure.

2. Both the reliability and validity (concurrent, construct and discriminant) of the SDQ total scale and the five sub-scales have been established. In the case of the peer problems sub-scale, the test-retest reliability was found to be r = 0.61 (Hawes and Dadds 2004). Full details of the reliability and validity of the sub-scales and total scale can be found in Murray et al. (2011).

3. The peer problems scale includes a range of items, including the following: ‘I am usually on my own’, ‘I have one good friend or more (reversed)’ and ‘Other children or young people pick on me’.

4. Again the reliability and validity (construct and convergent) of the Piers-Harris scale and sub-scales have been established (Murray et al. 2011). In the case of the popularity sub-scale, figures for the reliability coefficients, for example, demonstrate good internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .74 (Piers and Herzberg 2007).