| dc.description.abstract | As the educational landscape rapidly transforms in response to the promotion of inclusive education agendas, it has brought challenges to the management and leadership of provision for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). The role of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), the person responsible for managing and leading SEN in the primary school setting is not defined in Ireland and research relevant to the role is scarce. This research applied Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory, and positioned special education within Hornby’s Inclusive Special Education Framework, to explore SENCOs’ and Principals’ perspectives on the role, and to identify the current practices of SENCOs and the implications for their professional learning in primary schools in Ireland.
A two-phase mixed methods sequential explanatory research design (QUAL +quan) was adopted for the study. Phase One involved a large-scale national survey of SENCOs in Irish primary schools (n=371). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data from Phase One. Phase Two was informed by findings from Phase One and involved semi-structured interviews (n=9) with SENCOs, SENCO Principals, and Principals to undertake an in-depth exploration of the realities, experiences and challenges of the SENCO role in Ireland. Data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Findings from Phase One provide insight into the profiles of SENCOs in Irish primary schools. They pointed to experienced SENCOs who for the majority held a post of responsibility related to the SENCO role (72.6%). Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis from Phase Two. These themes indicated that SENCOs are leading and managing school-wide collaborative approaches to SEN provision; are experienced, knowledgeable, connected and enabled by supportive staff and Principals and a culture of collaboration; and that the extensive nebulous nature of the SENCO role has evolved in a policy vacuum with insufficient time and inadequate support from external professional services. The thematic analysis also provided insights from the Principals and SENCOs on the future directions of the role.
In summary, SENCOs are leading SEN provision through collaborative and distributed approaches across the school microsystem. It was evident that SENCOs are acting as advocacy leaders, pedagogical leads and mediators of change. While a large percentage have a SEN specific qualification and a post of responsibility, potentially more support is needed from policy makers and teacher educators to ensure that SENCOs have appropriate professional learning available to them and that the role is assigned a relevant and formalised post of responsibility. Various enablers and barriers to SENCO role enactment were identified when framed by Bioecological Systems Theory. The SENCO role operates at the centre of the Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory and is impacted by changes over time (chronosystem) from the various levels of the system, such as policy changes from the macrosystem and exosystem. The findings may provide an important evidence base to underpin and inform the evolution of policy and practice for the SENCO role in Irish primary schools. | en_US |
