SCHOOL-AGE CARE, AN IDEOLOGICAL CONTRADICTION

Abstract

In the doctoral dissertation "Children with intellectual disability in the integrated school-age care system" the extent and goal fulfilment of after-school recreation centre activities in 19 Swedish municipalities were studied. The study gave high marks to these centres for integrating intellectually disabled children into their activities. The empirics of the dissertation revealed, however, a number of warning signals, which indicated an increase in offering “special solutions” to these children. This article will contain a comparison between the study from 1999 and the one carried out in the spring of 2011. The two studies have followed the same question construction in order to achieve a comparison over time. The aim of study, focusing on children received into schools for the intellectually disabled was to evaluate to what extent integrated activities occurred and to look for factors with a positive impact on the quality of those after-school activities which gathered children from these and compulsory schools in the same groups. On the basis of the comparison made between the 12 years that have passed from the earlier to the later study, it must be regretfully concluded that segregated activities have gained a firm hold on the activities of after-school recreation care centres. Key words: after-school activities, inclusion, integrated, intellectual disability, school-age care system.