Background: This paper presents findings from a systematic review of the literature related to participation and the ICF/ICF-CY in educational research.

Objectives: To analyse how and investigate the application of participation in educational research. Specifically, how participation is related to the environmental dimensions availability, accessibility, affordability, accommodability and acceptability.

Methods: A systematic literature review using database keyword searches and refinement protocols using inclusion and exclusion criteria at abstract, full-text and extraction.

Results: Four hundred and twenty-one initial works were found. Twenty-three met the inclusion criteria. Availability and accommodations are the most investigated dimensions. Operationalization of participation is not always consistent with definitions used.

Conclusion: Research is developing a holistic approach to investigating participation as, although all papers reference at least one environmental dimension, only four of the 11 empirical works reviewed present a fully balanced approach when theorizing and operationalizing participation; hopefully this balanced approach will continue and influence educational policy and school practice.

This study approaches inclusive schools by looking at how conditions for participation are expressed for pupils with additional support needs in education policy documents in Sweden and Scotland. By using five dimensions of the environment – availability, accessibility, affordability, accommodability, and acceptability – expressions of conditions for participation are explored in 41 documents. This is done in a vertical manner by analysing national laws, regional policy documents, and local-level documents which directly influence classroom practices. A deductive content analysis approach using a protocol based on the five environmental dimensions is used to extract information and identify meaning units. In the meaning units meaningful concepts are identified and linked to ICF-CY categories. These are used as reference points. It is suggested, from the documents analysed, that conditions for participation are easy to express as available, accessible opportunities, or affordability issues, but not as involvement experiences linked to accommodations made and acceptability issues within a context. Documents in Scotland and Sweden also have different foci in terms of conditions for participation.

Inclusive education is part of social inclusion; therefore, social capital can be linkedto an inclusive education policy and practice. This association is explored in thisarticle, and a practical measure is proposed. Specifically, the World Health Organization’sInternational Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Childrenand Youth Version (ICF-CY) is proposed as the link between social capital andinclusive education. By mapping participation and trust indicators of social capitalto the ICF-CY and by using the Matrix to Analyse Functioning in Education Systems(MAFES) to analyze the functioning of inclusive education policies and systems,a measure for stronger inclusive education policies is proposed. Such a toolcan be used for policy planning and monitoring to ensure better inclusive educationenvironments. In conclusion, combining enhanced social capital linked tostronger inclusive education policies, by using the ICF-CY, can lead to better healthand well-being for all.

This paper investigates how measures of social capital correspond with inclusive education policies by linking both to the ICF-CY. The method employs cross-country comparative analyses of six European countries – Germany, Greece, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom – based on social capital indicators from the European Social Survey (Round 4-2008), along with comparison on the level of inclusive education policies within these countries by analyzing policies from a participation perspective. The results indicate that the ICF-CY is a useful tool for measuring both social capital and inclusive education policies, and although no connections could be drawn between social capital and inclusive education policy, the ICF-CY provided a consistent and common language for describing health and its related topics.

Background: Participation as involvement in a situation includes two dimensions; doing the activity and the experience of involvement.

Objectives: The ICF-CY only measures doing using the capacity and performance qualifiers, a dimension measuring the experience is needed; a third qualifier. Hypothesis: The experienced involvement of pupils in school activities is higher when thinking and doing coincided.

Methods: By comparing self-reported experiences of involvement of children, data about what children were thinking and doing during activities were gathered from 21 children with and 19 without disabilities in inclusive classrooms.

Results: A relationship exists between an index of the subjective experience of involvement and whether children were thinking and doing the same things.

Conclusion: This index can be constructed using measures of concentration, control, involvement, and motivation. Choice is influential, as knowledge about why an activity is undertaken affects involvement. Additionally, increased subjective experience of involvement gives better psychological health and well-being.