This case study was located in a primary mainstream school in Greece with the aim to explore how the Special Educational Needs (SEN) legislative reforms with regards to inclusion and inclusive practice have been developed and implemented in Greece. Prior to the study a critical analysis of the Greek SEN laws (Law 2817 and Law 3699) was undertaken to better understand how SEN and inclusion have been conceptualised and how practice has been guided and legislatively established in Greek mainstream schools. The analysis of the policy documents and the literature review indicated that the most dominant form of inclusive practice in mainstream schools has been the operation of ‘Inclusive Classes’ (ICs). Therefore, the case study aimed to unfold deeper understandings underpinning inclusive decisions and practices for students, their parents and school staff in the school setting, including mainly the IC and play area. Following an exploratory case study design and employing Grounded Theory (GT) processes, reciprocal relationships of inclusion were reconstructed, deconstructed and understood based on the policy documents’ analysis, the observations of actual practice and the participants’ experiences and understandings gained through interviews. The findings suggested omissions at both policy level and within educational practice. These omissions imposed restraints on students’ social development, as well as in the pedagogical approaches employed by the teachers due to confusion and lack of knowledge and training with regards to SEN inclusive practice and notions. The analysis concludes with a key finding of ‘vague inclusive realities’, where terms of inclusion were used to describe processes resulting in exclusion. The discussion and future recommendations are conceptualised on the basis of identifying barriers between policy and practice (special versus general education) as a means to achieve more effective inclusion and an effort to decrease possible practices or behaviours that may lead to ‘vague inclusive realities’.

This research study examined the effects of classwide peer support training on the occurrence of initiated and reciprocal peer interactions of students with significant disabilities in two inclusive physical education classes. An AB research design was used to document changes in the occurrence of initiated and reciprocal peer interactions of students with significant disabilities following the provision of peer support training to all of their classmates. Four students with significant disabilities were observed in the study and baseline and post-intervention data on the occurrence of peer interactions were collected. The peer support training was provided to classes where four students with significant disabilities were included (two students in each classroom). Thirty-seven peers in the physical education classes were taught to (a) identify expectations within a single activity designed for the entire class in which a student with significant disabilities could also participate, (b) utilize the concept of partial participation to meaningfully include a student with significant disabilities in physical education classroom activities, (c) address priority educational goals from a student's Individual Education Plan during group activities, (d) use positive feedback and reinforcement to encourage participation, (e) program and use augmentative communication devices for meaningful participation in activities occurring in a physical education classroom, and (f) employ strategies to facilitate the development of peer relations and encourage interactions in ways that provide alternatives to an overreliance on paraprofessionals. After the peer support training was provided to the students in both physical education classes, follow-up observations were conducted to determine the impact of that peer support training on the occurrence and type of peer interactions of students with significant disabilities in inclusive physical education classes. Increases in the occurrence of interactions, as well as increases in both initiated and reciprocal peer interactions were documented as additional opportunities for students with significant disabilities to interact with their classmates were created. With the total number of peer interactions increasing following the training for each of the four boys, the success of the strategies employed could lead to increased levels of acceptance and access to other areas of the general education environment alongside their peers without disabilities.