| Summary: | Inclusive schools support a diverse group of students, each of whom has different needs. Accordingly, all staff must have the skills needed for the school to meet its responsibilities. Paraprofessionals play an important role in inclusive education, given that they often attend to children with more intensive support needs. Although they are often responsible for supporting children with social, emotional, and behavioural challenges, previous studies indicate that paraprofessionals lack professional guidance and training. Research indicates that behavioural concerns are common in Icelandic schools, as teachers and paraprofessionals report encountering challenging student behaviours daily. Furthermore, teachers in Iceland have also expressed having limited self-efficacy about preventing and addressing student behavioural concerns, and a majority of teachers and school administrators have needed more training related to inclusive school practices.This qualitative study aimed to examine paraprofessional experiences working with children with challenging behaviours and their work-related well-being from a phenomenological perspective. The paraprofessionals’ roles, responsibilities, experiences, and feelings in these situations were investigated. We asked them how much training they received and whether and how it helped them prevent or address behavioural challenges. Additionally, we examined the paraprofessionals’ responses to challenging behaviour and their relationships with students and school staff.Six paraprofessionals participated in the study, all of whom had experience working with students with challenging behaviours. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The themes we developed were: 1) children’s distress causes challenging behaviour, 2) calm and positive communication works best to meet children’s needs, 3) paraprofessionals are made responsible for classroom and behaviour management while lacking support, and 4) the importance of ...
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