Educational research has traditionally treated students as passive recipients of researchers’ decisions and actions (Pinter et al., 2016). Considering students only as informants is no longer deemed appropriate and thus educational research focuses on reinforcing student participation and involvement by raising their voice and engagement in decision making process to improve school practice (Sant 2019 Cook-Sather 2018; Charteris and Smardon 2019). Students have the agency to interpret and depict the challenges of the instruction they receive and, as Cook–Sather (2018, 17) highlights, students can become the ones who can “speak and act alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice”.  To this end, student voice can provide unique insights with regard to teaching and learning especially when it is used to lead reforms in practice (Cardiff et al., 2023). 

The aim of this study is to actively engage students with and without disabilities and those from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to identify their views and evaluate their experiences with regard to access to the curriculum and the assessment tasks they have to fulfil in the Greek primary classrooms. Following the international inclusion movement, students with disabilities (SWD), students without disabilities (SWOD) as well as students from different cultural backgrounds (SDB) are provided with educational services in mainstream schools to access the curriculum through differentiated and inclusive instruction according to their needs (Friend et al., 2010; Strogilos et al., 2023).  To respond to the needs of students from diverse backgrounds, Greek legislation provides human resources such as psychologists, social workers, second language teachers and special education teachers (SET) to promote inclusive instruction (Law 3699/2008).  Thus, commonly, in a  Greek primary school, one can find different types of support for diverse students such as a general education teacher (GET) and a SET, usually assigned for one or two SWD, working in a classroom as co-teachers; a SET  for all students  with specific learning difficulties to provide individual or group support in a special class; a second language teacher for all students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds; a psychologist or/and  social worker to assist students with behavioral difficulties.

Even though there is high level of human resource to support students from diverse backgrounds, there is research evidence indicating that inclusive practices (e.g. co-teaching, collaborative learning, differentiated instruction) are not effectively implemented (Manoli, Mouti, & Kantzou 2021;Lytrivi & Papadopoulou 2022). Thus, a considerable number of students, especially those with disabilities, and from different cultural backgrounds, are still marginalized and excluded from the mainstream curriculum.

To explore the above inconsistency, we aim to actively engage students i) to describe their difficulties; ii) to discuss why there is still a failure in the system to effectively implement inclusive practices  despite the considerable number of  professionals working in Greek primary schools; and iii)  to propose changes on teaching and learning processes with regard to collaboration amongst professionals (e.g. co-teaching methods), collaborative student learning and access to the curriculum (O’ Conner 2022).

 The research questions are as follows:

How do students with and without disabilities and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds describe and evaluate the instruction they receive?

How do students perceive the discrepancy between high levels of support and the lack of inclusive teaching processes?

What changes do students suggest regarding the teaching and learning processes to enhance inclusive practice?

We employed a qualitative approach, implementing student-friendly activities through digital tools (design of a website enriched with visual symbols) and focus groups to gain insights from 18, 5th and 6th grade students in one primary school. We used student-friendly digital tools to implement activities to attract the students’ interest and facilitate their understanding and expression. We considered of great importance to adjust the activities to the needs of students from diverse backgrounds, using symbols, photos, and virtual reality scenarios, so the students are enabled to participate in a well -informed, dialogic and reflexive process (Fayette & Bond 2018; Jones & Hall. 2022). We conducted focus groups every two weeks for six months, which were audio recorded and transcribed. We implemented several cycles of sharing previous collected findings from activities and focus groups with the students in the next focus groups to enhance dialogue and students’ engagement in analysing and interpreting the findings. The student sample consisted of i) two students with autism, one with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, two from India (Panjab) and one from Albania (5th grade); ii) two students with autism, one with mild learning difficulties, two students from Albania, and one from Bulgaria (6th grade); and three SWOD in 5th grade and three in 6th grade, respectively. All students were selected after personal contact with the school and parents’ consent. Two researchers took over all cases, one in 5th grade and one in 6th grade. Each met once a week with their respective groups in the school to work on student-friendly digital activities. As mentioned above, every second week, focus groups took place with the two groups of students to discuss the findings of the previous activities. Data collection lasted six months during which the researchers were in contact to reassure that they follow the same procedures in the collection of data and remain focused on the aims of the study. Thematic analysis used in understanding the students’ views and in identifying themes across the collected data (Braun and Clarke 2019). We coded students’ views and experiences and we created themes to enhance the interpretation of data.

Our preliminary analysis mainly focuses on interpreting the discrepancy between the high amount of support that students receive and the insufficient implementation of inclusive practices based on student narratives. To this end, three aspects of teaching and learning were explored; collaboration among professionals, access to curriculum and collaborative learning. We are currently eliciting themes related to students’ views on collaboration among professionals which include the roles of professionals and student academic progress and social participation. Other emerging themes related to the access to the curriculum include the lack of students’ interest in the class activities, and the absence of differentiated instruction which makes students feel confused, reluctant or unable to follow the rest of the class. With regard to collaborative learning, emerging themes include the sense of belonging, student engagement, and the development of friendships. Students consider that collaborative learning has positive outcomes for all students, makes them feel that they belong, and helps them make friends. We intend to discuss that even though the human resource provision is high, and this should be regarded as a means to an effective inclusive education, the overall education practice in Greek mainstream schools cannot be considered as inclusive. Also, we will discuss students’ voices and suggestions related to the quality of the education they receive, and we will make recommendations for policy and future research.

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