The project REfugee and MΙgrant studeΝts with Disabilities (REMIND) focuses on enhancing the visibility of an “invisible” student population: children from diverse cultural backgrounds with special educational needs. These characteristics—reflecting the “double vulnerability” that defines this group—have been extensively studied in the past, albeit separately. The project adopts an intersectional and exploratory perspective, employing qualitative and applied approaches. It draws on multiple sources of information (parents and professionals in the field of special education) and seeks to use this material as a foundation for the design and specification of an intervention aimed at promoting the school inclusion of students with diverse cultural backgrounds and special educational needs.
More specifically, interviews will be conducted with parents/guardians of students with diverse cultural references (e.g., migrant or refugee backgrounds) who attend special schools. In addition, focus groups will be carried out with special education teachers, educational administrators, and mental health professionals experienced with this student population. Data will be analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, allowing for in-depth exploration of this complex, multilayered, and multidimensional issue. The immediacy of communication, opportunities for expression, and active engagement of participants enhance the ecological validity of the research. Key themes to be explored include the cultural meaning-making of special educational needs, challenges in exercising parental and professional roles, recognition of the population’s multi-level needs, and the urgency of policy development, service coordination, and cultural mediation.
Subsequently, drawing on selected findings from the qualitative phase, an intervention will be designed and implemented with two small groups of students from diverse cultural backgrounds with special educational needs, aiming to foster constructive participation. Each group will consist of two students with Intellectual Disability and two students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A multiple baseline research design between subjects will be employed, allowing for internal validity control in small-sample studies. The materials and activities used as the intervention context will be specifically developed for the project, incorporating qualitative insights and music-based activities (including the use of musical instruments), and will be culturally sensitive, aligned with participants’ learning profiles. It is expected that the frequency of key dimensions of constructive participation—such as cooperation, social interaction, and attentional focus—will increase, thereby strengthening these students’ inclusion within the Greek school context.
For the implementation of the REMIND project, the Laboratory of Applied Cross-Cultural and Social Psychology collaborates with the 9th Special Primary School of Athens.
Research Team:
