In the context of complying with the objections of the UN-Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Germany, stakeholders in schools are being adressed with new and extensive challenges in order to deal with heterogeneity within a framework of selection and exclusion. Paraprofessional support plays an increasingly important role in inclusive schools in Germany which can be observed by remarkably rising numbers. However, research on the practices of paraprofessionals in inclusive schools has just been initiated lately (Lübeck & Heinrich 2016) – with ambivalent results on the usefulness, cooperative efforts and possible stigmatization for students with special educational needs.  

So far, the perspective of students with special educational needs on the received assistance by paraprofessionals has not been adressed in empirical research in Germany or Europe (for the international context see Broer 2005). In order to find hints for a (further) conceptualization and professionalization of this supporting role, the study “Paraprofessional Support from a students’ perspective (SAS)” – has been conducted as a cooperation project between the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University of Technology Dortmund. Using the Documentary Method as a methodological basis (Nohl 2012), problem- and childcentered interviews (Heinzel 1997) have been conducted with students with Special Educational Needs from different school types in order to reconstruct the students’ orientations on learning and behaviour in class under the circumstances of received paraprofessional support. This paper presents results of this empirical study focusing on spacial relations of paraprofessional support in inclusive schools from a students’ perspective. Space, positioning and location will serve as theoretica and analytical terms to reveal barriers or opportunities of participation or separation that may be produced situationally, hidden, communicationally etc. (Hemingway & Armstrong 2012). They help to describe and theorize paraprofessional support within educational settings on the basis of students’ perspective.

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