Inclusive education and the bullying involvement of boys with special educational needs at a Swedish elementary school

Previous research has found that students with special educational needs (SEN) are at increased risk of involvement in school bullying, that they tend to have fewer friends than non-SEN peers, and that they experience higher levels of emotional harm as a result. However, beyond discussions of their differential experiences in segregated and mainstream schooling, there has been little research into how broader school-level factors may contribute to the bullying involvement of students with SEN. In this study, we investigate how the institutional school context may impact the bullying involvement of students with SEN in various ways. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at one public mainstream elementary school in Sweden, which included 8 weeks of participant observations at the school and interviews with students and school staff. In analysing our data, we draw on Duncan's [If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.' Compulsion, compression, control, and competition in secondary schooling." International Journal on School Disaffection 10 (1): 29-45] conceptualisation of four key features of schooling: compulsion, compression, control, and competition. Our findings point to the interconnected ways in which these elements contribute to the bullying involvement of students with SEN.