Good practices in collaboration between mainstream and special school

Abstract

The study addresses an element of the support for inclusive education that can be spotted in the sphere of possible relations between mainstream and special school. This mostly aims at presenting some good practices in collaboration between these schools, identified in the author’s own research. An additional aim is to confront the collected information with the concepts and assumptions/proposals formulated in this area in the literature on the subject. The research was conducted within the project: Badanie praktyki ogólnodostępnych szkół podstawowych w zakresie edukacji włączającej [Studying the practices of mainstream primary schools in the field of inclusive education], financed by the Ministry of National Education and commissioned to the University of Silesia in Katowice in 2020. The data were collected with the use of focus group interview technique. The study group consisted of mainstream school head-teachers, teachers, specialists, non-teaching staff, students of public schools and their parents. The study comprised over two hundred respondents from forty schools. The research results reveal a limited scope of good practices in collaboration of both types of school. The greatest number of examples occurs in the area of common organization of ludic and educational events. Much fewer cases of collaboration can be spotted in the field of methodological support and of creating self-education groups in counties or municipalities. The first part of the study is a presentation of the own research concept. The second part comprises some identified practices in collaboration between special and mainstream school, which have been confronted with a few suggestions for partnership of both these types of school presented in the literature on the subject. The whole article is completed with final conclusions.