Browsing by Author "Männikkö, Kerttu"

Social integration consists of the four following elements: interaction, friendships, the student’s own perception and acceptance by classmates. The subject is relevant in developing special education system, as social integration is known to play a key role in pupils’ education and wellbeing. It is also known that the level of social integration is weaker within students with special education needs, than with other students. The aim of this master’s thesis was to find out how social integration appears in a certain primary school in Helsinki from the teaching staff’s point of view. The participants in this master’s thesis were a principal, a special needs teacher and six class teachers from grades 1-6. The research data was collected by interviewing the participants with a thematic interview in May 2020. The data was transcribed and then analysed qualitatively with both theory-based and material-based content analysis. The results of this study showed that the level of social integration within students with special needs is described to be lower than within other students. However, the teachers were aware of the methods supporting social integration, and were implementing these actions in their classroom work. The participants felt it was one of their most important tasks to support students’ social integration, and according to this study, the ways of supporting it were for example pedagogical co-working with colleagues, mutual pedagogical structures in teacher committee, and practical classroom work.