Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Fatemeh Yadegari ¹
• Kourosh Fathi Vajargah ²
• Hossein Pourshahriar ¹

¹ Shahid Beheshti University

² Professor in Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This study was conducted with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the lived experiences of students with cerebral palsy in relation to the curriculum of regular schools, using an interpretive phenomenological approach. The location of the research was Palestine 1 Boys' Primary School, located in the fifteenth district of Tehran. The student under study in the present study was selected through a case sampling method, and other participants in this study were selected purposefully. The participants in this study, in addition to the student with cerebral palsy, were the student's parents, his/her selected classmates, the teacher this year and the teacher two years ago, the researcher himself as the teacher of the previous year, the student's therapist, and a specialist teacher. Content analysis of the texts obtained from semi-structured qualitative interviews was conducted using the method proposed by Van Manen (1990), in three stages: holistic reading, selective reading, and detailed reading. The findings of the present study show that, on the one hand, educating students with cerebral palsy in regular schools leads to the development of social skills, strengthening self-confidence, and the formation of a positive self-concept, but on the other hand, it faces serious challenges such as the lack of appropriate physical facilities, the lack of specialized personnel, and the inflexibility of curricula.

Keywords

• Cerebral palsy student
• Curriculum
• Phenomenology
• Inclusive instruction
• Lived experience