3. COMPARACIÓN METODOLÓGICA
3.4. Cambios en la metodología del tutor
In total, 63 parents completed a web questionnaire. As this study was situated in a qualitative paradigm, and because there was no intent to determine the relationships between variables, particularly causal relationships as is often the case with quantitative research, only basic statistical techniques were used to analyse this data. The results of the qualitative data are presented as tables and text with accompanying participant quotes as examples.
Respondents were asked to identify the main area of their child’s need. Table 5.1 outlines this data. While not provided as choices in the questionnaire, Asperger
Syndrome and Autism were specified by a significant number of respondents. Therefore, these categories have been included in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1
Parent questionnaire: Main area of need
Main Area of Impairment Frequency Percent
Intellectual 19 30
Asperger 9 14
Behaviour 8 13
Autism 6 9
Speech and/or communication 5 8
Multiple/complex needs 5 8 Physical 3 5 Emotional 3 5 Hearing 2 3 Social 2 3 Visual 1 2 TOTAL 63 100
Respondents were asked to identify their child’s present level of schooling. Table 5.2 summarises this information. Over half the respondents indicated their child attended a primary school, and nearly one quarter of the respondents indicated their child attended a secondary school. Only 6% of respondents indicated that their child was at a special school or facility.
Table 5.2
Parent questionnaire: Present level of schooling
Present Level of Schooling Frequency Percent
Primary 34 54
Intermediate 10 16
Secondary 14 22
Special School 1 6
Not at school anymore 4 2
TOTAL 63 100
A list of 27 barriers was presented to respondents. As this was the first phase of the research, the barriers were identified from the literature. Respondents were asked to choose the 10 most common barriers to being included at school their child had experienced.
Table 5.3
Parent questionnaire: Common barriers experienced
Responses
Common Barriers Frequency Percent
Teachers not being knowledgeable about the special needs of my child
43 69
Lack of funding 37 60
Lack of teacher aide time 35 56
Poor attitude of class teacher 33 53
Poor attitude of the school principal 30 48
Lack of adaptation of my child’s school work 25 40
My child being bullied or harassed 24 39
Lack of school policies around meeting the needs of students with special needs
24 39
Discrimination on the basis of their special need 22 36
Inadequate school policy on inclusion 20 32
Child not having friends 19 31
Poor attitudes of the other students at the school 18 29
Not including me as a parent 18 29
The teacher not giving my child enough of their time 16 26
The actual disability of my child 15 24
Being segregated from the regular class 14 23
My child not being wanted by the school 14 23
My child being treated unfairly by those in control at the school
13 21
My child not being valued by the school 13 21
The physical environment of the classroom 12 19
Lack of caring by staff 12 19
Focusing only on the things my child couldn’t do 12 19
Too many children in my child’s class 11 18
Inadequate physical resources 10 16
The physical environment of the school 10 16
Poor attitudes of the other parents at the school 9 15
Not enough pastoral support in the school 3 5
The most common barriers identified by parents were: lack of teacher knowledge; lack of funding and teacher aide time; and the poor attitude of teachers and principals, all being identified by nearly 50% or more of respondents. Lack of adaptation and bullying were also identified as barriers by nearly 40% of respondents. Those factors that acted to exclude students least were: too little pastoral support at the school; the poor attitude of parents; an inappropriate physical environment of the school; and inadequate physical resources.
Respondents were asked to nominate ONE barrier that they considered the most powerful in acting to exclude their child at school. Table 5.4 presents the most frequently identified barriers and their frequency rates.
Table 5.4
Parent questionnaire: Most powerful barrier experienced
Barrier Frequency Percent
Lack of teacher/principal knowledge and/or understanding 26 41
Lack of funding and/or resourcing 12 19
Poor attitude of the teacher/principal 8 13
Lack of teacher aide time 7 11
Bullying 7 11
Not having friends 2 3
Lack of adaptation to curriculum 1 2
TOTAL 63 100
Respondents were then asked to explain the barrier, how their child experienced it and give a specific example of what happened. All responses to this question were analysed using the qualitative data analysis software programme Nvivo(7).16
Asking respondents to provide an in-depth explanation of the exclusion that their child had experienced at school revealed a more complex account of the phenomenon than the single choices from the quantitative section of the questionnaire had allowed, and therefore the analysis presented in the following section deviate from the basic seven categories outlined in Table 5.4. Analysis revealed eight major themes, which are initially presented in Tables 5.5 to 5.12, then subsequently described in more depth with accompanying quotes from participants as examples. These themes are:
1. Abuse and/or bullying
2. Teacher knowledge and understanding 3. Enrolment and attendance
4. Curriculum access and participation 5. Physical segregation
6. Communication 7. Funding
8. The value placed on child
As respondents identified more than one barrier in their explanations, the total from Tables 5.5 to 5.13 are greater than 63.
Abuse and/or bullying
The most common theme to emerge from parents’ explanations of their child’s exclusion was associated with abuse and/or bullying. Analysis of the parent questionnaire identified 32 responses related to this theme. Table 5.5 presents these findings.
Table 5.5
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with abuse and/or bullying
Theme No of
responses
General physical and emotional bullying by peers 10
General non specified teacher bullying 6
Child humiliated by teachers 6
Teachers shouting at child 2
Teachers encouraging other children to abuse/bully child 2
Principals trying to ‘section 9’ child 2
Teachers not allowing other children in the class to help child 1
Teacher physically abusing child 1
Teacher harassing siblings of child 1
Abuse/ bullying
Child left in soiled pants 1
TOTAL 32
Ten parents reported bullying and abuse by peers. This included physical and emotional bullying:
Physical – leg being hung up on a peg in the cloakroom, ridiculed, shunned, having his lunch squashed, having his personal items stolen or wrecked, clothes ripped. Emotional —being shunned by peers, laughed at. (Parent 29)
Lack of understanding, prevention and acknowledgement of the high levels of peer bullying in schools, particularly high school level. (Parent 42)
In regards to teacher bullying and abuse, humiliation was a major factor, however shouting, encouraging other children to bully the child and principals threatening to ‘section 9’17
children were also reported. For one parent, the acceptance of teacher bullying by other staff at the school was difficult to understand.
17 Section 9, 1(a) of the 1989 New Zealand Education Act states that parents may be directed to enrol
One teacher in particular at primary school added to the bullying [child was being bullied by peers] herself, ridiculing him and segregating him in front of the whole class on more than one occasion, calling him stupid. (P 30)
Students at school with staff instruction placed [name of child] in the centre of a large circle of students. The students in the circle were told by staff to each tell [name of child] what it was that they didn’t like about him. (Parent 58)
The bullying and harassing was done by the classroom teacher. Tolerance among the teaching staff and principal of inappropriate behaviour towards my daughter e.g. throwing a pen that hit my daughter, kicking her chair while seated on it, pushing her out a door, yelling at her for no reason, making her turn off her hearing aids at certain times, …lack of deep investigation by ERO and Ministry of Education when complaints reported to them and subsequent lack of action even though an independent report clearly identified wrong doing on the part of the teacher, principal and BOT. Continual cover-up by the BOT even though they knew of another same unacceptable incident by the same teacher. (Parent 17)
Teacher knowledge and understanding
The second most common theme to emerge from parents’ explanation of their child’s exclusion was associated with a lack of teacher knowledge and understanding. Table 5.6 presents the major issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.6
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with teacher knowledge and/or understanding
Theme No of
responses
Teachers did not recognise needs and meet those needs 7
Teachers who saw problem only residing within the child 4
General unspecified lack of understanding by teachers 3
Lack of teacher knowledge of autism 3
Teachers not accepting child had impairment 2
Low teacher expectations of child 2
General lack of teacher knowledge 2
Teacher knowledge and understanding
Teachers not learning about child’s needs 2
TOTAL 25
The major issues associated with this barrier were predominantly an unwillingness or reluctance on the part of teachers to recognise the specific needs of children and meet those needs:
It was in the way she was dealt with by staff, how they attended to problems that surfaced, their reluctance to do anything to help, their unwillingness to step outside their comfort zone. Their inability/unwillingness to understand her difficulties. (Parent 32)
Parents also reported medical model thinking (which locates difficulties children experience at school as residing solely within the child) as a major barrier to their child’s learning and participation at school:
Any issues were always identified as our son’s, not as stemming from the class teacher. (Parent 41)
The previous school were of the belief that our son’s behaviour was due to his disability and to the impact of adolescence. We were unable to convince the school that we did not believe that the problems he was experiencing were totally attributable to this. (Parent 11)
Enrolment and attendance
Issues around enrolment and attendance were problematic for some of the parent respondents and this was the third most identified barrier in this section of the questionnaire. Table 5.7 reports on the issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.7
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with enrolment and attendance
Theme No of
responses Parents told they have to keep their child at home if there is
no teacher aide ‘cover’
8
Child only permitted to attend school for part of day 2
Parents phoned to come and take child home during school hours
2
School enrolment only permitted with conditions 1
Parents felt pressured to take child out of school 1
Enrolment and attendance
Child suspended or expelled from school 1
TOTAL 15
Parents identified a number of issues in relation to enrolment and attendance. This included principals permitting conditional enrolment (for example only at times that the child could be ‘independent’); principals permitting children to attend school for only part of a day or week; parents feeling pressure to take their child out of school when there were any problems or issues; and, in one case, a principal suspending a child from school.
We have been told that he has to go home when the teacher aide does because he takes too much to keep an eye on. (Parent 41)
He was turned down on application at one school. Another principal wanted to give him only two weeks to settle down. He showed no understanding of his illness or needs. (Parent 52)
We were told that we would have to find times when he could be independent or we would have to keep him at home from school for half of each day. (Parent 64)
Curriculum access and participation
Issues associated with curriculum access and participation were also identified by parents as barriers to their child’s presence and participation at school. This included access and participation to all aspects of school curriculum, including assessment. Table 5.8 presents the issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.8
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with curriculum access and participation
Theme No of
responses
Lack of accommodations 7
Child denied access to learning materials 1
Regular assessments not carried out with child 2
Teacher did not plan learning programme for child 1
Teacher did not take responsibility for teaching child 1
Access to learning
Children left to do nothing if teacher aide not present 3
TOTAL 15
The issues associated with this theme included children being denied access to learning opportunities, and in particular, lack of accommodation and adaptations being made so that children could access the curriculum. Two parents reported that the learning of their children was not assessed as it was for non-disabled children. One parent reported that the teaching of her son was largely undertaken by his peers.
There was a lack of recognition by the classroom teacher on the need to modify curriculum to include our child in similar activities to those the other children were doing. (Parent 51)
No initial school entry assessment was ever undertaken by the class teacher, in fact no records were maintained by the class teacher at all, the teacher aide wrote the end of year report. (Parent 43)
His peer group took over his teaching in the afternoon by sharing work and reading stories. The classroom teacher was not held accountable for not taking responsibility for our son’s learning. (Parent 41)
Physical segregation
Issues related to physical segregation were identified as a barrier, with 11 responses emerging from parents’ explanations of their child’s exclusion. Table 5.9 presents the issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.9
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with physical segregation
Theme No of
responses
Being grouped or timetabled with other disabled children 2
Not being included in the normal classroom/school programme 3
Being physically segregated within the class 3
Doing work different from the mainstream 2
Physical segregation
Excluded at break times 1
TOTAL 11
Issues associated with the theme of physical segregation included being physically segregated within and outside the class, not being included in the normal class or school programme, having to do work that was different from the mainstream, and being excluded at break times.
She was not allowed to be included in core subjects with her year-9 form class. (Parent 23)
Being removed from the classroom for individual instruction in a large storage cupboard. (Parent 43)
His skill base lies in sport, swimming, art and music. These were scheduled after he was to have left the class. This showed a lack of consideration of where he could fit in easily in the class. (Parent 41)
Communication
An analysis of parents’ explanations of their child’s exclusion revealed 10 responses associated with communication issues. Table 5.10 presents the issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.10
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with communication
Theme No of
responses
Parents’ advice not listened to 8
Lack of communication to parents 1
Communication
Lack of information sharing 1
TOTAL 10
The issues associated with this theme included parents feeling that they were not being listened to, and that they did not have their knowledge and experience as parents respected. Two parents reported schools refusing to access support from agencies such as Ministry of Education: Special Education (GSE)18
. One parent reported that a class teacher would not read any of the material she provided. A barrier for one parent was a lack of information sharing between professionals and between the teacher of one year and the next.
The staff consistently refused to access support from GSE. The offer of advice, support from us as parents and our son’s previous teacher aide who had worked with our son for seven years was ignored. (Parent 11)
Some teachers and the principal showed absolutely no interest in learning about his condition and how to adjust their teaching style to suit him or to ensure his safety in the playground. I was told that he could not be treated differently to anyone else and that the injuries in the playground were his own fault. (Parent 6)
Our child was excluded but so were we as the parents and as the years go by, principals, schools and teachers are just becoming better at it. For example, the IEP process was supposed to be the vehicle where we expected our views to be respected and implemented but we were continually disregarded and ignored. It was the school’s way or no way and their way was just to receive the funding with no interest in the well being of our child or accountability for outcomes. (Parent 61)
Funding
A further theme to emerge from parents’ explanations of their child’s exclusion was associated with funding. Table 5.11 presents the issues associated with this theme.
18
The section of the Ministry of Education where staff focus on, “strengthening and improving the educational opportunities and outcomes for children with special educational needs” Ministry of Education, 2008).
Table 5.11
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with funding
Theme No of
responses
Parents asked to fund teacher aide hours 2
Funding application difficult 2
School diverted child’s teacher aide hours 2
General lack of funding 1
Not receiving all allocated teacher aide hours 1
Funding
Being denied ORRS19 funding 1
TOTAL 9
Parents reported being asked by the school to fund teacher aide hours; schools diverting the teacher aide hours allocated to their child to other uses; and difficulty in completing the funding application forms. While twelve parents indicated lack of funding as one of the barriers in the quantitative section of the questionnaire, only two parents indicated this as the major barrier, and no parents mentioned this in the qualitative section of the questionnaire.
The principal kept trying to divert funds allocated to the school for my child into other areas of the school which didn’t affect her. I had several meetings with support staff from the various agencies and the principal, and he eventually redistributed the funds to help my daughter. (Parent 1)
The responsibility was put back to us as parents to provide extra resources, pay extra teacher aide hours. (Parent 41)
The value placed on the child
The final theme to emerge from parents’ explanations of their child’s exclusion was associated with the lack of value parents believe schools placed on their child. Table 5.12 presents the issues associated with this theme.
Table 5.12
Parent questionnaire: Issues associated with value placed on child
Theme No of
responses
Child not wanted by the school 3
School thinking child was a nuisance 2
Value placed on child
Teachers angry at having to have child in their class 1
TOTAL 6
19 Ongoing Reviewable Resourcing Scheme is a funding mechanism for individual students who are
verified as having high or very high needs. Funding is allocated to schools for teacher and teacher aide time as well as for professional support and intervention.
It could be argued that the theme of lack of value placed on the child, played a part in all the themes reported by parents as barriers to their child’s inclusion at school. Three parents described how their child was not wanted by a school, two believed that the school thought their child was a nuisance and one parent explained that the class teacher