A sociological enquiry into the educational experiences of children with an additional support need; from the perspective of the learning support assistants
Citation
(2016) A sociological enquiry into the
educational experiences of
children with an additional
support need; from the
perspective of the learning
support assistants, no. 93.
Abstract
This dissertation is a sociological enquiry into the educational experiences of
children with an additional support need; from the perspective of the learning support
assistants within two mainstream primary schools within East Lothian, Scotland.
This thesis was designed as a result of the exploration of previously significant
research (i.e. Alton-Lee et al. 2000; Gilbert et al. 2010; Silas 2014) which revealed a
gap in our understanding of the pedagogic approaches when related to the
educational experiences of children with additional support needs. Critically, this
thesis utilises an interpretivist epistemology in order to enable an in-depth
investigation into the educational experiences of children with an additional support
need.
As such, the analysis of primary data was synthesised with previous research in this
specific area in order to reveal the central most important factors - i.e. inclusion;
resources; curriculum and pedagogy; labelling theory; and school size and
geographical setting - in defining the educational experiences of children with an
additional support need in mainstream primary schools within East Lothian, and to
gain greater understanding of these experiences within Scotland as a whole.
As a result several recommendations have been made in this dissertation. These
recommendations focus on a need to explore how the current 3-18 Curriculum for
Excellence can be tailored to meet the needs of children with ASN. In addition, the
flexibility of enabling environments was found to be critical in terms of educational
outcomes for children with any additional needs. And finally, the acceptance of
additional support needs within mainstream primary schools from early years was
also found to be critical, particularly with regard to inclusion and interaction.