Abstract:

Within schools’ walls, the commitment of teachers to favour the educational success of students with Special Educational Needs does not concern only those with physical and learning disabilities. Their attention is addressed to all students, and in particular to those, even without a medical certification, who just “can’t take it" if alone, and therefore require personal attention and planning. These are children and teenagers who experience disadvantages caused by problematic social or environmental conditions and learning difficulties that significantly impede the frequency and the positive development of the education and training paths.

The research project, which involved 105 schools of every order and degree, was planned jointly with IPRASE [1] and the Department of Knowledge of the Autonomous Province of Trento. It aimed at identifying useful elements to outline an interpretative framework on the educational fragilities of disadvantaged students and the school contexts where they study and live, as well as formulating suggestions for any changes in school policies and for training activities for teachers.

Given the need to investigate the phenomenon in the context where it is experienced, the research project was developed within the ecological paradigm [2] [3]. The research design has been structured around two parallel paths: the school track and the territorial services which play around students with educational fragilities. The analysis of the students’ educational needs was carried out through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, adopting and endorsing the voices of school professionals and the privileged witnesses of the local authorities involved [4] [5].

The full paper presents the implementation of this approach, with emphasis on methodological aspects. In particular, it is worth recalling the attempt to transform a request for quantitative data collection in an opportunity to make reflection for all participants, i.e. teachers, heads of institutes and professionals working in the territorial services. The authors of the research stress the importance of the methodological framework adopted, which is based on the adoption of a service perspective, an emergent research design and a highly participative approach [6], very similar to the one proposed by the research-education perspective [7].

References:
[1] Provincial Institute for Research and Educational Experimentation.
[2] Mortari L. (2007), Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia, Carocci, Roma.
[3] Lincoln Y.S., Guba E.G. (1985), Naturalistic inquiry, Beverly Hills: Sage.
[4] Tashakkori A, Teddlie C. (2010) (eds.), SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioral Research, Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
[5] Creswell JW (2014), Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
[6] Mortari L. (2008), A scuola di libertà: formazione e pensiero autonomo, Cortina, Milano.
[7] Centro di Ricerca Educativa sulla Professionalità dell’Insegnante (2016), Un’idea comune di Ricerca-Formazione all’interno del Centro CRESPI, Retrieved from http://crespi.edu.unibo.it/

Keywords:

Special Educational Needs, educational fragilities, transformative research, service research.