Browsing by Author "Laasanen, Anni"

Objectives. Stable separate systems have been created for the intellectually disabled in our society. Integration in the educational path could act as a channel for social relations between the intellectually disabled and the general populace. I studied the realization of inclusion in the educational path by using the stages of integrativeness as presented by Moberg & Savolainen (2015). The stages are physical, functional, social and societal integrativeness. In my thesis I seek to find out which stages of integrativeness have been realized in the educational path of the mildly intellectually disabled and whether the stages of integrativeness have connections to the subjects present friendships. Methods. My research method was a narrative multi-case study. The subjects of my thesis were five mildly intellectually disabled young adult women. My data collection method was a semi-structured interview. The material was analyzed using a narrative analysis as presented by Polkinghorne (2005). In the narrative analysis the interviews were used to form narrative descriptions of the subjects educational paths. The narratives formed from the educational paths of the subjects were also used to search common factors. Results and conclusions. All research subjects had experienced physical integration and three subjects had also experienced functional integration during their educational path. One research subject had also experienced social integration during her educational path. Another subject had changed from general education to a special school. She had formed social relations in the special school and later in life in hobbies aimed at special education students. Separate systems are a useful resource in creating social relations, but the integration in the general education should be more comprehensive in order to produce social relations between different students.