The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Special and inclusive settings: a winning combination in the early years?

Special and inclusive settings: a winning combination in the early years?
Special and inclusive settings: a winning combination in the early years?
The paper reports on a small research project conducted in the South of England and funded by Mencap City Foundation. The study is concerned with the processes through which young children with learning difficulties come to be experiencing a combination of special and mainstream preschool provision. We have (i) explored ways of identifying parents who have "opted" for a combination of special and mainstream services for their child in the early years; (ii) sought to gain a better understanding of how parents conceptualise the choices available to them and their choice making process; and (iii) tried to elicit what parents expect from the combined provision and how they feel about it. In addition to questionnaires and follow-up interviews with parents, we sent similar questionnaires to providers (special schools, nurseries, early excellence centres, Sure Start centres etc) and to voluntary groups (local and national, disability-focused and parent-focused). This enabled us to gain the perspectives of those providing services and support as well as providing routes to accessing parents. We found that behind the New Labour rhetoric of the importance of placing children at the centre of individually created packages of provision, and parents at the centre of decision-making, there were complex stories of mixed messages, local diversity and constrained options
inclusive education, individual needs, parent choice, special educational needs
Nind, M.
b1e294c7-0014-483e-9320-e2a0346dffef
Flewitt, R.
24f39cde-b6e9-4dc5-9da5-9bfc4d5b4231
Nind, M.
b1e294c7-0014-483e-9320-e2a0346dffef
Flewitt, R.
24f39cde-b6e9-4dc5-9da5-9bfc4d5b4231

Nind, M. and Flewitt, R. (2005) Special and inclusive settings: a winning combination in the early years? British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Glamorgan, UK. 14 - 17 Sep 2005. 11 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The paper reports on a small research project conducted in the South of England and funded by Mencap City Foundation. The study is concerned with the processes through which young children with learning difficulties come to be experiencing a combination of special and mainstream preschool provision. We have (i) explored ways of identifying parents who have "opted" for a combination of special and mainstream services for their child in the early years; (ii) sought to gain a better understanding of how parents conceptualise the choices available to them and their choice making process; and (iii) tried to elicit what parents expect from the combined provision and how they feel about it. In addition to questionnaires and follow-up interviews with parents, we sent similar questionnaires to providers (special schools, nurseries, early excellence centres, Sure Start centres etc) and to voluntary groups (local and national, disability-focused and parent-focused). This enabled us to gain the perspectives of those providing services and support as well as providing routes to accessing parents. We found that behind the New Labour rhetoric of the importance of placing children at the centre of individually created packages of provision, and parents at the centre of decision-making, there were complex stories of mixed messages, local diversity and constrained options

Text
Educationline_149791.doc - Version of Record
Download (71kB)

More information

Published date: 2005
Venue - Dates: British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Glamorgan, UK, 2005-09-14 - 2005-09-17
Keywords: inclusive education, individual needs, parent choice, special educational needs

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 55262
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/55262
PURE UUID: 9f2aa06a-858e-4dac-afa1-90f46c95d868
ORCID for M. Nind: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4070-7513

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Aug 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:41

Export record

Contributors

Author: M. Nind ORCID iD
Author: R. Flewitt

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×