The overall aim of this study is to analyse the role of the support teacher in regular classrooms in secondary education; the specific objectives are the following:

a) Identify the type of support received by the teacher in the regular classroom.

b) Identify the perception of students and teachers of the support given. 

Significant differences exist between including a support teacher in primary and secondary education. The most important challenges are the following in secondary education: the structure of the educational stage itself; the development of the curriculum; the instructional processes and the expectations of students (De Vroey, Struyf and Petry, 2016).

From a cultural dimension, secondary education traditionally focuses on the efficiency of the teaching provided as it is meant to prepare students for the workforce or further studies; this efficiency has always tended to oscillate between the search for fairness and excellence (Arnaiz et al., 2013).

From the political perspective of schools in general, Round, Subban, and Sharma (2015) consider that the traditional paradigm inherent to secondary education means that the barriers to the inclusion process are directly related to the curriculum, teacher training and the conception of the support provided. The importance given purely to the academic curriculum, as opposed to a curriculum that advocates the integral development of students (Arnaiz et al., 2013; Bhatnagar and Das 2014) hinders the processes of flexibility and adaptation of the academic curriculum. In the European context, teachers are more concerned with the teaching-learning process in the classroom than with the individual needs of students (Round, Subban, and Sharma, 2015). This perspective is reinforced by the type of training that teachers of secondary education receive themselves. Educated as experts in a subject, teachers need more training in topics related to inclusion (Bhatnagar and Das, 2014; Florian and Spratt, 2013; Lattimer, 2012; Moliner et al., 2011). Furthermore, the way of organizing the necessary support within schools is also a key factor for the development of inclusive processes. Based on a model of dependency (Lehane, 2016), teacher training aims to cover the educational needs of students from the perspective of the deficit model, which is more reactive than proactive as regards the performance of teachers (Vlachou, Didaskalou and Kontofryou, 2015).

European studies indicate that the creation of a collaborative team between the classroom teacher and the support teacher improves inclusive practices (Echeita et al., 2013). However, support should be conceived more as support for learning, rather than support for participation (Morningstar et al., 2015). For Vlachou et al. (2015) the role of the support teacher is reduced to three functions: identifying students’ needs; planning and implementing instructional processes; monitoring student progress.

From a practical perspective, most research points to the lack of collaboration as being the main barrier to inclusion. Support teachers experience a sense of loneliness in their work (Lehane, 2016; Moliner et al., 2011); they perceive a lack of support from the management team and their colleagues (De Vroey et al., 2016); often there is little time to establish ways of collaboration with colleagues (Echeita et al., 2013; Lehane, 2016): these factors combined put the pressure on the support teacher throughout the entire inclusion process (Morningstar et al., 2015).

The mixed research in the current study, which combines quantitative and qualitative methods, is oriented towards an in-depth understanding of the educational and social. In this instance, a case study allows us to approach the educational phenomenon in order to identify, analyse and understand the different interactive processes involved. The high school where our research took place is located in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. It has a population of 357 students whose socio-economic level is considered medium to low. 18% of the student population comes from other countries and the school has 48 teachers. The school has a classroom for students with special educational needs; these needs are related to autism spectrum disorder, behavioural problems and hyperactivity (11 students). Four teachers are in charge of this support classroom, all of whom have had psycho-pedagogical training. On occasions, the teachers of this special-needs classroom support teachers from the regular classrooms as their special-needs students attend the regular classes in an attempt to integrate. The sample chosen for our study was based on the following elements: Eight teachers for the interview. Ten teachers for the discussion group. Eight students for the discussion group. 310 students (87%) for the questionnaire. For the preparation of the above instruments, four documents were used as references: 1. the dimensions of the Index For Inclusion (Booth and Ainscow, 2002); 2. the levels of support in the regular classroom (Huguet, 2006); 3. the "Co-teaching Survey" of La Monte (2012); and 4. the inclusion observation scale by Morningstar and Shogren (2013). Processing the information obtained from the interviews and the discussion groups was carried out using the technique of discourse analysis through the construction of a hermeneutical matrix. The construction of the categories and subcategories followed a mixed process (deductive and inductive). We started by using several categories that were obtained from the theoretical framework and the subcategories that emerged from the field study were subsequently incorporated. After the classification of the textual data, a coding process was carried out using Maxqda computer software (version 17). The quantitative data of the questionnaire (α = 0.79) were analysed through the statistical program SPSS (version 17.0). We then proceeded to a descriptive statistical analysis (calculation of means, standard deviations and frequencies); a correlational analysis (using the bilateral Pearson correlation coefficient); and finally an inferential analysis (comparison of ANOVA means and a T-Test for independent samples).

The results show that the teaching staff are aware of the principles of inclusion but do not put them into practice. The teachers seem to be closer to the practice of integration processes than to inclusion due to their uncertainty regarding academic standards, the lack of available resources and the scarce teacher training on inclusion. In addition, discriminatory attitudes persist that do not respond to the principle of equity. The teachers take responsibility for the factors and parameters that are clearly defined: the teacher designs the course following the syllabus, they give class and assess their students; the support teacher, on the other hand, accompanies the classroom teacher and offers direct support to students with special needs regarding the control of their behaviour in the classroom and the acquisition of content and skills. There is no ambiguity in their roles, but neither is there collaboration between them. According to the teachers themselves, it is the lack of time that hinders the establishment of real collaboration since the communication established between teachers is short and takes place in spaces that are inadequate; this does not allow for joint planning or the development of classes through shared teaching. Another factor that may contribute to poor collaboration is the lack of teacher training on the part of regular classroom teachers on topics related to inclusion. In fact, most special-needs students and regular classroom teachers only do feel at ease when the support teacher is present. This lack in teacher training often leads the regular classroom teacher to experience feelings of inadequacy, if not incompetence, in the teaching-learning process when relating to special-needs students in their classroom. Thus, the regular classroom teacher often shies away from any involvement in the educational process that involves special-needs students putting all the responsibility onto the support teachers.

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