Nowicki E A, Brown J, Stepien M
Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
J Intellect Disabil Res. 2014 Apr;58(4):346-57. doi: 10.1111/jir.12019. Epub 2013 Jan 28.
Previous research has shown that children with intellectual or learning disabilities are at risk for social exclusion by their peers but little is known of children's views on this topic. In this study, we used concept mapping to investigate elementary school children's thoughts on why they believe their peers with intellectual or learning disabilities are sometimes socially excluded at school.
Participants were 49 grade five and six children who attended inclusive classrooms. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. We extracted 49 unique statements from the transcribed data, and then invited participants to sort the statements into meaningful categories.
Sorted data were entered into matrices, which were summed and analysed with multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analysis. A four-cluster solution provided the best conceptual fit for the data. Clusters reflected themes on (1) the thoughts and actions of other children; (2) differences in learning ability and resource allocation; (3) affect, physical characteristics and schooling; and (4) negative thoughts and behaviours.
The overarching reason for social exclusion focused on differences between children with and without disabilities. This study also provided evidence that children are effective, reliable and competent participants in concept mapping. Educational and research implications are discussed.
先前的研究表明，有智力或学习障碍的儿童面临被同龄人社会排斥的风险，但对于儿童在这个话题上的看法却知之甚少。在本研究中，我们使用概念图来调查小学生对于他们认为有智力或学习障碍的同龄人有时在学校被社会排斥原因的想法。
参与者为49名在融合课堂就读的五、六年级儿童。访谈进行了数字录音和转录。我们从转录数据中提取了49条独特的陈述，然后邀请参与者将这些陈述分类成有意义的类别。
分类后的数据被输入矩阵，进行求和，并通过多维标度法和聚类分析进行分析。一个四类解决方案为数据提供了最佳的概念拟合。这些类别反映了关于以下方面的主题：（1）其他儿童的想法和行为；（2）学习能力和资源分配的差异；（3）情感、身体特征和学校教育；以及（4）消极的想法和行为。
社会排斥的首要原因集中在残疾儿童和非残疾儿童之间的差异上。本研究还提供了证据，证明儿童是概念图绘制中有效、可靠且有能力的参与者。文中讨论了教育和研究方面的意义。
