“Peter? He comes and goes…”: First Graders' Perspectives on a Part-Time Mainstream Student

Part-time integration of students with moderate and severe disabilities into regular classes has become a common feature of special education programs. How regular education students think about their school experience, including part-time mainstreaming, can be a source of information for integration efforts, but these perceptions have received little attention in the special education literature. Participant observation and in-depth interviews were employed over a 7-month period to study a first grade class in which a student described as “moderately mentally retarded” participated on a part-time basis. This student spent most of his school day in a self-contained special education class. The findings reveal that these first graders had a common framework for defining their school experience. Their descriptions centered around themes of “where you belong,” “what you do,” and “with whom you play.” Data collected about Peter, the part-time mainstream student, are interpreted according to this student framework. Findings indicate significant discrepancies between the students' definitions of what it means to be part of first grade and the focus of the teacher's efforts to include Peter and present him as a member of the class.