The description of intellectually disabled individuals views of their educational lives who are attending to primary schools that practice mainstreaming application

The purpose of this research is to describe educational experiences of individuals withintellectual disabilities? placed in K-8general education and special education classrooms ingeneral education schools. The research participants are 28 students with intellectualdisabilities who placed in K-8 general and special education classrooms, in a city of Turkey.In order to obtain the appropriate data to achieve the purpose of this research,interview method was chosen among qualitative research methods and the semi- structuredinterview technique was chosen to conduct interviews. During the interviews a voicerecording device was used. In the interview, semi-structured interview questions were asked.Also the informal interviews have been made with general education teachers and schoolcounselors and logs were kept about the students.Five general education schools were selected randomly to conduct this research. Theresearcher obtained the required permission document from Provincial National EducationivBoard. The students to be interviewed are in K-8 general education classes and specialeducation classes that can express themselves orally and in writing, with moderate and mildlevel of Intellectual disabilities. 19 of them are in general education classes while 9 in specialeducation classes. 10 of the students interviewed are girls and 18 are boys. According to theirIQ scores, 7 were diagnosed with moderate retardation and 21 were diagnosed with mildretardation. 3 of the students diagnosed with moderate retardation are in general educationclasses and 4 of them are in special education classes.After the students were selected, the school staff and parents were informed andconsent letters were signed by parents and students. An interview schedule was prepared.Interviews were held due to this schedule. Than the transcription process of the interviewrecords was followed. The voice recordings of the interviews of each student were transcribedwithout any modification.At the end of the research, in accordance with the views of the students with specialneeds in classes with mainstreaming applications, their relationships with their teachers andother students in their classes, and their school lives are generally positive, although they havesome problems in classes. Some of these children with special needs face problems such asabusive teachers and classmates, the communication challenges with teachers and classmates,the lack of feedback from teachers and the teacher's instructional adaptation problems forchildren with special needs. The findings include that in schools there are no specialeducational support for children with special needs, in or outside of the class.Key words: Mainstreaming, Intellectual disability, Individuals with Special Needs, SpecialEducation Class, General Education Class