A sociological enquiry into the educational experiences of children with an additional support need; from the perspective of the learning support assistants

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.