There is an international trend towards increased placement of students with disabilities in regular schools. Research has shown that students educated in inclusive classrooms tend to perform better academically and socially when compared to students who are educated in specialist settings (Hehir et, al,  2016). This research has largely focussed on students with students who have low support needs. A large majority of students with disabilities who have high support needs continue to be educated in specialist settings. Researchers, inclusion advocates and policymakers have emphasised the need to include all learners irrespective of the level of needs of students with disabilities. Surprisingly the voices of parents and students who have high support needs are missing from this debate. There is also hardly any research that has made cross-country comparisons.  

This current research was being undertaken to examine why parents/carers choose to enrol their child(ren) in regular and/or special schools. The study will also explore factors that influence their decisions to move their child, if they do move them, from one setting to another. We are keen to identify factors that influence parents'/families' decisions about choosing a placement option  (inclusive VS special) for their child.

Theoretical Framework

This research is about exploring parental motivation to send their children to either special or inclusive settings. We plan to use the “Theories of Motivation in Education: an Integrative Framework” by Urhahne and Wijnia (2023) to provide a conceptual foundation for the project. The theoretical framework helps us understand the motivation of a person about important decisions. Parents/families may make placement decisions considering many factors (e.g. parental self-efficacy, Matthews, et.al, 2022; satisfaction with the placement option, Sharma, et.al, 2022). The framework would allow us to examine parental motivations across different country contexts. It may allow us to extend Urhahne & Wijnia's framework as it is not applied across multiple country contexts in the inclusive/special education field.

The data for this study is being collected from Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Greece, Germany, and the UK (and other countries). Our group is conducting a longitudinal study using quantitative and qualitative data with the aim to understand why and how parents decide to enrol their children in one or the other setting. In this symposium, we will present cross-country comparisons and individual country data from some of the participating countries about parental perspectives and factors that influenced their decisions.

The first paper will report parental data from a study conducted in Plymouth, UK, the second paper will report data from Norway which examined the relationship between parental perceptions about inclusion with their demographic variables, and the final presentation will examine parental perspectives about the quality of their child's education in Italy. 

The research will have significant implications for researchers, policymakers, educators, and families and carers of students with a disability who are keen to learn about how best the schools and systems be reformed to provide high-quality education to all children

Hehir, T., Pascucci, S., & Pascucci, C. (2016). A summary of the evidence on inclusive education. Retrieved from http://alana.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/A_Summary_of_the_evidence_on_inclusive_education.pdf. Matthews, J., Millward, C., Hayes, L., & Wade, C. (2022). Development and validation of a short-form parenting self-efficacy scale: me as a parent scale (Maaps-SF). Journal of Child and Family Studies, 31(8), 2292-2302. Sharma, U., Woodcock, S., May, F. & Subban, P. (2022). Examining Parental Perception of Inclusive Education Climate. Front. Educ. 7:907742. DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2022.907742 Urhahne, D., Wijnia, L. Theories of Motivation in Education: an Integrative Framework. Educ Psychol Rev 35, 45 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09767-9 Schwab, S., Sharma, U., & Loreman, T. (2018). Are we included? Secondary students' perception of inclusion climate in their schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 31-39.