Participation in Primary Schools from the Perspective of Children with and Without Special Educational Needs

Abstract Empirical studies show that participation in primary schools improves the well-being, development, and skills of children with and without Special Educational Needs (SEN). However, it remains unclear to what extent children’s experiences of participation vary across (diverse) SEN and non-SEN groups and school types. The present study ( n = 147) addresses this research gap using qualitative interviews conducted in German primary schools and analyzed via a Grounded Theory approach, supplemented by descriptive quantitative analyses to capture the prevalence of children’s experiences of participation. The findings show that some children experience everyday school life as externally controlled and report that teachers normally decide learning content, tasks, and organizational processes. This is reported particularly often by children with SEN (SEN, i.e. intellectual development, learning, and social-emotional development) who attend special schools (71%). Furthermore, some children view participation as unfair, seeing it as favoring certain individuals. In creative learning contexts, some children report only limited opportunities for participation, particularly children (with or without SEN) in mainstream schools (45%). These children interpret a lack of participation as unjust. By contrast, in so-called “democracy schools”, which focus on child participation, 80% of children report extensive opportunities to get involved. There, teachers are described as learning facilitators, and participation is understood as fair and self-evident. Yet such participation is also experienced as challenging, particularly by girls and by children with SEN. The findings have implications particularly with regard to children’s rights and the structural exclusion of children with SEN.