| Summary: | This dissertation explores the educational experiences of children identified as having the contested disability label Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD) in four Irish primary schools. Creative, participatory methodologies and focus group interviews were used to gather the children's perceptions of school and learning. Focus groups were used also with their parents, teachers and SNAs to explore the factors that supported or hindered the children's learning experiences. Significant findings include: the impact of disability labels; how the negative discourses that go hand-in-hand with disability labels impact on how professionals perceive the children and their learning abilities. Furthermore, supports currently on offer separate the children, often unnecessarily, from their peers and increase marginalisation. A greater emphasis on supports for all at classroom level is required. Teachers must be flexible and support the needs of all learners by providing a rich and participative learning environment for all the pupils they encounter. To this end, a framework informed by the testimonies of the children, their parents, teachers and SNAs and the relevant literature is presented. This provides educators with a tool for self-evaluation to review how obstacles to inclusion can be resolved at classroom level. The finding that the current resourcing system disadvantages children with non-normative SEN/EBD will interest policy makers. The implications for the Inspectorate are that it is timely to evaluate schools with a wider lens, looking critically at the supports schools provide for pupils in terms of health and well-being, and in particular, social, emotional and behavioural supports. This will ensure that pupils identified as having EBD are enabled to achieve to the maximum and do not fall foul of those deterministic beliefs about the abilities of young children that often prevail in our schooling system.
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