The "Inclusion & Integration" Reform: How Do Parents' Decisions about the Educational Framework in which their Child will attend, are Shaped?

• In Event: Parents and Communities as Holistic Support Systems for their Students

Proposal

Background
This research examines the fulfillment of choice granted to parents by the "Inclusion and Integration" reform – a novel educational reform in Israel, rooted in the Special Education Law, amendment no. 11, 2018. Parents are entitled to choose between a dedicated special education framework, an integrated framework featuring a special education classroom within a mainstream school, or an inclusive framework within a regular classroom for the majority or entirety of the school day. Under the "Inclusion and Integration" reform, the educational framework decision is made at the "Characterization and Eligibility" committee meeting attended by the child, his parents, school representatives, and specialists. The parents' choice is paramount as it influences the level of services and support their child will receive, the child's social environment, and the extent of training received by the educational staff.
My research focuses on the process through which the student's eligibility for special education services is determined, consequently impacting the parents' decision about their child's educational framework. The research posits that the process of choosing an educational framework transpires within a political, social, and cultural context - in other words, within an educational policy operating in a field shaped by social and cultural perceptions. Thus, the process that occurs within the school and family in preparation for the characterization and eligibility committees, and in the parents' choice of the type of educational framework for their child can be defined as a "field" (Bourdieu, 1972, 1986). The goal of this research is to unearth the covert social and structural processes guiding this process.
The key questions of this study are:
1. How do tangible and symbolic resources tied to social and cultural capital shape the choice process, as well as the parents' selection of an educational framework in a neo-liberal era?
2. How do interactions with educational teams and professional experts shape the parents' decisions regarding their child's educational path?
3. How do perceptions about parenting, disability, and medicalization shape the parents' experience, their perceived identity, and subsequently, their choice of an educational path for their child; and how do these perceptions evolve within the educational field that practices an inclusion and integration policy for special education children in public schools?

Research method
This qualitative study employs a case study approach. The case in focus is 'The process that occurs within the school and the family from the moment a decision is made by the parents and/or the school staff to refer a student to the Characterization and Eligibility committee until the parents choose the type of educational setting in which the student will study'. This process shapes a student's eligibility for special education services and his parents' decision regarding his educational framework.
The research participants are parents and a multi-professional team involved in the process, including school administrators, educational consultants, psychologists, educators, and integration coordinators. The research tools are interviews and observations. Between January and May 2018, I interviewed 19 parents of students from nine elementary schools in Jerusalem. I also interviewed the inter-professional team that supported the student's application to the Characterization and Eligibility Committee. Additionally, I observed 12 staff meetings with parents at the onset of the process or close to the student's submission to the committee. At the end of the committees, I re-interviewed 17 of the parents.
Research findings
Three primary findings emerged:
1. The field takes shape as a reflection of social processes related to the crisis of expertise. Four social processes associated with the "crisis of expertise" were identified that determine the symbolic capital relevant to the process: the social authority of the education teams and the significance of trust as field capital; the cultural authority of education and the importance of medicalization and emotional discourse as symbolic educational capital; practices of intensive parenting as symbolic capital to obtain legitimacy for partnership in the process; and exercising the right to choose as an expression of parental expertise and their symbolic capital in the process.
2. Parents' agency in the field is moulded as a reflection of their status and potent social processes related to medicalization, exclusion, and the intensive parenting model. Parents enter the field with diverse economic, social, and cultural capital resources, and hold different perceptions regarding diagnoses (especially psychiatric ones), their child's disability as a personal or social problem, and optimal parenting. All these factors translate into the ability to exercise agency in the process and choosing an educational setting for their child. The primary goal of parental agency is to secure wide eligibility for special education services and to minimize the labeling and exclusion involved.
3. The moral agency of parents is shaped through two processes of "ethical work," which modify parental conduct in the process of choosing an educational framework for their child. One is a reflexive process of examining parents' own life experiences as pupils and as children of their parents, and the second is clarifying the beliefs, feelings, and values that guide them.
Preliminary conclusions
1. The research connects to the broader field of the sociology of expertise and indicates a trend of an expertise crisis among teaching staff due to "regulatory education," which undermines parents' ability to trust educational processes.
2. An educational policy that promotes a humanistic approach to integration and inclusion risks perpetuating social gaps. Children from families with a low socioeconomic status are assigned to advanced special education classes, while children of established parents receive a comprehensive personal package and are integrated into mainstream education. The research points to parenting practices that deviate from this trend.

Author

• Ronit Katz, Ministry of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel