A story of high school inclusion

Abstract

This is an ethnographic case study of the inclusion of a fifteen-year-old male with severe disabilities in general education classes in a four-year high school in a medium-sized Midwestern city. The study took place during the student’s freshman and sophomore years. The investigator interviewed 17 of the participants in the student’s inclusion; administrators, special education staff, general education teachers, and parents—accumulating over 450 pages of transcribed interviews in the process. She spent five days in field observation of the student’s general education classes and other school activities—all recorded in substantial on-site notes—and had access to relevant documents concerning the student in the school’s files. The NVivo 8 computer software was used to code the data. A Story of High School Inclusion: An Ethnographic Case Study examines these questions: How did parents and professionals (e.g., school administrators, special education staff, general education teachers, state-level special education consultants) involved in the process of the inclusion of a student with severe disabilities in general education high school classes define inclusion? How did they characterize their attitudes toward it? What role did each of them play in preparing for the student’s inclusion? How did each of them describe their part in the process of the student’s inclusion? Do the accounts of those individuals involved in the inclusion of the student with severe disabilities align or do they suggest tensions? What was the impact of these alignments or tensions on the inclusion process? All the participants interviewed in the study agreed with and supported the idea of inclusion; however, except for the parents, those expressions of agreement and