Examining the effect of networks for students with special educational needs

Abstract

Fewer students with disabilities complete upper secondary education than students without disabilities. Danish students with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), attending either a mainstream or a special needs school, their teachers and parents participated in a cross-sectional and intervention study about factors hindering or promoting the best possible schooling and school experience. The study was based on virtual online networks and seminars and results were accumulated from interviews and questionnaires. We found that teachers benefited most from physical networking and parents most from virtual networking. The students only made little or no use of the networks. The teachers' need for access to expert knowledge about DMD was met. More than 80% of the teachers and parents said they would continue using the networks if they were made permanent.

Keywords:

• networks
• primary and upper secondary school
• special educational needs
• hindering and promoting factors
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Annette Mahoney, MA in translation and interpretation, for her great help with linguistic problems, translation and other didactic issues during our work on this article.