How Do Arab Special Needs Students in Higher Education Institutions Perceive the Role of the School Counselor in their Integration into Regular Educational Institutions?

Abstract

The paper discusses the significant role of school counselors in counseling students with special needs in education in the Arab sector in Israel from the perspective of Arab students with special needs in higher education in Israel. Special needs students are citizens in Israeli within the Arab sector who, because they are exceptional due to their impairment, require special attention and services through their education pursuit to enable them to cope in life and contribute their quota in the nation's development. This research paper examines the concept of special needs education, which means special needs children, with identification of the different categories of needs found within the Arab sector in Israeli within the education sector. Also, the research paper examines the meaning of a counselor and the roles and obligations aligned for a school counselor within special needs education. The study methodology was a mixed method which included both quantitative and qualitative parts. The sample of the study composed of 400 participants for the quantitative part out of which 50 also participated in the qualitative part. The study tools were an interview and a questionnaire. The main finding is that the school counselors act as an advocate for the integration of pupils with special needs with the main aim of involving policies to mainstream them in the education system in the Arab sector in Israel. Furthermore, significant impact of the social, family and school related factors on the integration of students within the educational institutions were found. Conclusions and recommendations were made, with the main recommendation being to adopt a special needs policy for all the mainstream schools in the Arab sector in Israel.