“I feel like I don’t belong anywhere”: An Empirical study on the Significance of Inclusive In-Class Support in Danish Public Schools

A recent political decree in Denmark outlined an ambitious goal regarding the inclusion of students with special needs in the general education. 97% of the country’s students are to receive their education in the public school’s general education by 2020. The use of inclusive in-class support is a central pedagogical approach, and research indicate that the application of in-class support – as a collaborative pedagogical practice – has positive implications for students with special educational needs (Alborz, 2009; Blatchford et al., 2009; Blatchford, Bassett, Brown, & Webster, 2009; Dyssegaard & Larsen, 2013). However, I find that the traditional understandings and definitions of inclusive education in a Danish context are inadequate due to the fact, that the student’s subjective experience of being included is being neglected as a significant dimension of the notion of inclusion. Based on my doctoral studies the paper will discuss the implications of the use of inclusive in-class support in the Danish general education in relation to the student’s participation in the communities of the general educational setting, and the student’s subjective experience of being included.