What pedagogical approaches can effectively include children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms? The interactions of peers, teachers and support staff

Abstract

This paper addresses issues raised by the systematic literature review process. The authors are currently examining the literature on the pedagogy of mainstream teachers and support staff that effectively include children with special educational needs, with a view to assessing the interactions of peers, teachers and support staff. This paper sets out the methods of the systematic review, how we defined our terms and narrowed our focus. It explores the tensions that we confronted as part of this process. It explores in particular how we built on a previous review, and dealt with the criteria used to include and exclude studies and to carry out keywording. The paper concludes by highlighting some limitations of the systematic review process, and their impact on the ways in which we frame the reviews we create