COLLABORATIVE SETTINGS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

This research is part of a wider reflection on the organizational models that promote inclusion in the wake of a social and political desire to improve students' academic success and retention as well as to establish sustainable collaborative practices. Since educational integration can be situated on a continuum of actions and organizational services (Beauregard and Trépanier, 2010), it could hence be partial at first, to then advance towards a total inclusion of special needs students. Although researchers have already identified a relationship between teacher collaboration and students’ achievement (Lapointe and Dion, 2015, Goddard and Goddard, 2007), collaboration between the various stakeholders has yet to be developed.

The objectives of our study are:
1. Experience collaborative settings that promote the integration of students with special needs into the regular classroom;
2. Describe the settings put in place to promote the integration of these students.

In this project, two primary school teams participated in consultation meetings and group interviews. Our results show that both school teams share the desire to collaborate in order to organize the educational services and to coordinate their actions towards a common goal. Educators address students’ needs in order to plan the organization of educational services to ensure a successful integration and help them achieve success. Furthermore, they try to keep regular teachers’ perceptions towards inclusion positive, so that other students with special needs will be integrated in the future.