Participation of children in three Bavarian inclusive primary schools: parent and teacher perspectives

ABSTRACT

Participation is one key element of inclusive education. While the inclusion rate in German schools is rising, little is known with regard to children’s participation in this context. This study examines the participation of children with and without impairments at three inclusive primary schools in Bavaria. Cross-sectional data was collected in parents and teachers of 124 3rd grade pupils (girls: n = 62, age: M = 9.5 years; boys: n = 62, age: M = 9.6). 27% of the parents stated their children had impairments (4.9% physical, 13.1% mental/ intellectual and 9.0% other/multiple). Participation in school and other life areas (‘neighborhood & community’, ‘home’ and ‘living activities’) was assessed by the ‘Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP)’. Parents and teachers of children with impairments reported significantly lower scores in all CASP subsections and total score. In school, according to teacher rating, all pupils showed the lowest participation scores in educational activities with other children in the classroom and in communicating with children/adults. The results highlight the continuing challenges to reach meaningful participation of all children as a condition for effective inclusive education. This seems to be true not only for school but also for other social contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• School participation
• disabilities
• impairments
• inclusive school

Acknowledgements

We thank the children who tested ‘Games without Barriers’ for having fun during the event day as well as their parents and teachers for participating in our study. Thanks go to the District of Upper Bavaria for supporting the project financially and to LASPO (Bavarian State Agency for School Sports) for sharing their expertise on school sports. Last but not least, we thank the students of sports and health sciences at the Technical University of Munich for their ideas on developing ‘Games without Barriers’ and our student assistant Katharina Richter for her support in the preparation process of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Friedmann

Anna Friedmann graduated in Educational Sciences, Psychology and Juvenile Criminal Law and is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Social Pediatrics at the Technical University of Munich. Her research focuses on preventative child protection measures in pediatric care, on psychosocial risk factors for infants' and toddlers' mental health and on evaluating patient education programmes for parents of infants with regulatory problems.

Natalie Altschuck

Natalie Altschuck is a physical therapist and holds a PhD from the Technical University of Munich. She is currently working as a researcher at the University of Fulda at the department of health sciences and at the University of Marburg Institute for Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology.

Isabella Bertmann

Isabella Bertmann graduated in Political Science, English and Romance Studies. Her PhD research focused on the quality of life experienced by persons with disabilities in South Africa. In her current research and teaching at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, she concentrates on international development and social policy topics (i.e. social protection and global health) with a focus on persons with disabilities, diversity issues as well as social inclusion.

Fabian Karsch

Fabian Karsch graduated in Sociology, Psychology and Ethnology. His research interests include health, illness and disability, technology studies in health care and the study of social problems. He is a Professor of Social and Health Sciences at HSD University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, Germany. He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Technical University of Munich.

Anke Petters

Anke Petters (M.A. clinical social work) is a former research assistant at the Technical University of Munich (Chair of Sociology of Diversity). She researched in the fields of inclusion and sport as well as inequalities in organisations, subjectification and agency. Currently, she works in the mental health sector (social integration).

Freia De Bock

Freia De Bock is a pediatrician and professor of Child Public Health and Health Services Research at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany. She is Head of a new Child Health Services Research department linking the medical faculty’s children’s hospital with its Center for Health and Society (chs). She is principal investigator of several research consortia on improving care and social participation for children with chronic conditions and disabilities in Germany (PART-CHILD, PICAR, PedSDM).

Heike Philippi

Heike Philippi is a pediatric neurologist and associate professor (PD) at the Goethe University Frankfurt. She is the head of the Center of Developmental Neurology (SPZ Frankfurt Mitte) in Frankfurt. She is leading an ICF – training-programme of a big study which aims at implementing and evaluating an intervention to promote social participation in care for children with chronic conditions and disabilities in Germany.

Volker Mall

Volker Mall holds the Chair of Social Pediatrics at the Technical University of Munich. He is also the medical director at kbo Kinderzentrum München, one of the leading social-pediatric centres in Germany. He researches psychosocial and biological causes of developmental disorders as well as diagnosis and therapy of children with cerebral palsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, infant regulatory disorders, Noonan syndrome and neurofibromatosis.

Elisabeth Wacker

Elisabeth Wacker holds the Chair of Sociology of Diversity at the Technical University of Munich and is Max Planck Fellow (Fellow-Group: Dis[cover]ability and Indicators for Inclusion 2015–2020) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. Her research focuses on coping with social inequality, diversity and difference when faced with impairment and disability in society (ICF, WHO, cross-cultural comparison). Other topics include the transformation of care systems (prevention, rehabilitation) and social policy (inclusion, participation and disability mainstreaming).