Ett individintegrerat läsår - marginalisering eller möjlighet : En studie om tre individintegrerade elever i gymnasiesärskolan

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to acquire knowledge about how interaction, participation and inclusion are affected by individual integration for three students in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities. To be individually integrated means, in this case, that the students from compulsory school for children with learning disabilities are taking part in some of the programme-specific courses together with students from the regular upper secondary school. This study gets its inspiration from the ethnographic research approach, and uses passive observations together with interviews with students and their guardians as main methods to collect information. The school in question has not made any adjustments to make the programme-specific courses more adapted to the different needs, which is typical of integration. This study shows that the school presumes that the students with the help from the vocational teacher, but without any special needs educational help, themselves are to adapt to the conditions at the regular upper secondary school. This, together with the lack of special needs educational competence among the vocational teachers, led to a higher level of exclusion and an enhanced feeling of not being up to standard among the integrated students. The results also show that the integrated students maintain a strong wish to be included with the students attending the regular upper secondary school. However, the integrated students are only formally a part of the class, and the level of inclusion is dependent on how the regu- lar upper secondary school students behave and let them be a real part of the class. Similar to other studies about learning disabilities, this study also shows that the parents of the integrated students with learning disabilities tend to have a more positive appreciation of the social situation than both the regular upper secondary school students, as well as the integrat- ed ones.