| Description of good practice: |
This example of a case study is originally described in Nilholm and Alm (2010). The case study was conducted in a classroom in grades 5 and 6 involving 15 pupils and 2 teachers. Four of the pupils had a neuropsychiatric diagnosis, and an additional pupil had been judged to be on the borderline for entering the special program for pupils with intellectual disabilities. A pilot-study had indicated that the classroom seemed inclusive, but the inclusiveness of the classroom was something that was investigated in the study. More specifically, inclusion was defined in terms of three criteria:
(1) difference was to be accepted,
(2) pupils should be participating socially, and
(3) pupils should be participating educationally.
Interviews, questionnaires, socio grams, poems from the pupils, and, to a lesser extent, participant observation were used to determine the inclusiveness of the classroom in terms of the three criteria. This part of the analysis indicated quite clearly that the classroom seemed to be an inclusive environment. In fact, there was data to indicate that the classroom qualified for the fourth definition of inclusion as including the construction of a community. Having established this, an analysis of the teachers’ strategies was made, and several strategies were discerned.
As with the study in Essunga, this study also was important in several ways.
Firstly, it is one of few empirical studies of classrooms that has taken its point of departure in an explicit definition of inclusion.
Secondly, the choice of the case is well-founded.
Thirdly, several teacher strategies are identified that seem to be important to create inclusive classrooms.
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