The facilitator's role in inclusion : contrasting scenarios in primary and secondary schools

Abstract

In this dissertation our intention was to contrast the process of facilitation in primary and secondary schools and to consider and map the professionalisation of facilitators in recent years. As regards to the comparison of the facilitator's role in primary and secondary schools, we concentrated on the following issues: their level of involvement in the child's education, their collaboration with co-operating teacher/s, their relationship with parents and the type and quality of assistance provided to facilitators by other stakeholders. It emerges from our study that indeed primary and secondary schools present facilitators with different realities and this affects their engagement with other stakeholders and their effectiveness to fully include children with special needs. Nevertheless, facilitators showed their concerns about the kind of support schools provide them with. Related to this, our study amongst professional personnel involved in the organisation of facilitators' courses brings forward their desire to have different training programmes for facilitators in primary and secondary schools. Although we cannot generalise results, we believe that our findings can serve as guidelines to start thinking about approaches that would further assist facilitators in their difficult tasks.