Social Participation of High School Students with Special Needs—A Case of Promotion of Systemic Behavior and Social Responsibility

Abstract

Social integration of students with special needs (SSNs) belongs to efforts for social responsibility as one's responsibility to practise interdependence and requisite holism of approach and wholeness of outcomes. Since the mid‐1990s, Slovenia gradually included SSNs in high school programmes. Schools must prepare individualized programmes (IPs) for each SSN. Authors empirically examined implementation of IPs for SSNs and the roles of teachers, students and parents in IP design with grammar school, vocational and technical school teachers, who had a SSN in their class and offered additional professional support (n = 131). Authors checked the role of the type of school, impairment and teachers' training. Results show that most students know IPs but only rarely participate in expert team meetings. They are excluded from the decision‐making regarding IP learning objectives, particularly students with learning difficulties. Parents are included in the IP implementation and evaluation; however, parents of children with learning difficulties are less involved in this process than the other SSNs. Grammar school teachers are more reserved towards SSNs and IP implementation. Thus, the attained level of systemic behavior via social responsibility, ethics of interdependence and holism differs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.