With the implementation of inclusive education the daily lives of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their peers in the inclusive classroom have drastically changed. Instead of being automatically referred to a special school students with SEN can now attend regular schools in their neighborhood. By attending regular schools, the opportunity for social participation of students with SEN would increase. However, based on previous research it is known that especially students with Social Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities (SEBD) do not benefit automatically from the social opportunities in the inclusive education; they often experience difficulties with the social participation in the inclusive classroom. This results in situations where students with SEBD are being rejected, bullied and feelings of loneliness appear. To be able to improve the social participation of students with SEBD it is needed to listen to their experiences. By means of this, they can indicate what kind of strategies they would or are using when facing situations such as bullying and social exclusion. Via semi-structured interviews this study aims to gain more knowledge about the needs and strategies of students with SEBD by answering the research question: What are the needs and strategies of students with SEBD and low social participation when encountering situations of bullying and social exclusion? The participants who were interviewed attended grade 5 and 6 (age 9 - 13) in either regular schools or special schools (with previous attendance in regular schools) (N = 32). All participants experienced difficulties in the classroom with their social participation. An interview protocol was designed for the current study including topics and questions addressing hypothetical situations and actual experiences. The situations were introduced by short stories, supported with drawings about friendships, bullying, exclusion in play, and acceptance by peers. The interviews were held from February 2015 till January 2016 and are conducted by the first author and four master students. Because the interview period is still ongoing, it is not possible to report concrete results and conclusions right now. During the ECER the preliminary results of this study will be presented.

Bossaert, G., Colpin, H., Pijl, S. J., & Petry, K. (2013). Truly included? A literature study focusing on the social dimension of inclusion in education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17, 60-79.