The Impact of Parent Professional Partnerships in Inclusive Education

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The Impact of Parent Professional Partnerships in
Inclusive Education

• By Barbara Perry
• Faculty of Education
• University of Otago
• New Zealand
• barbara.perry_at_stonebow.otago.ac.nz

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Authors Background

• As a parent of a child with a disability and also
  a Lecturer in Disability Studies, I wished to
  review and update partnership models in Special
  Education. I have a son who is now thirteen years
  of age and in a wheelchair, and my personal
  belief is that partnership is even more essential
  when working with families who have a child with
  a disability.

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What is Partnership?

• What is Partnership?
• Partnership can mean different things to
  different people. The Concise Oxford Dictionary
  (1998) defines partnership as a person who
  takes part in an undertaking with another or
  others , especially in a business or a firm with
  shared risks and profits.

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Partnership Research in General Education

• Over the past twenty years extensive research
  has been carried out by the John Hopkins
  University Centre, Baltimore, on School, Family
  and Community Partnerships in General Education
  by Joyce Epstein and her team.

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Epsteins Model of Home School Partnership
SCHOOL
FAMILY
COMMUNITY
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• The model is drawn as a Venn diagram with three
  overlapping spheres, which includes internal and
  external structures which can either be pushed
  together or pulled apart by three main forces
• - background and practices of schools and
  classrooms
• - time

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Inclusion in New Zealand

• Empowerment is seen as an important factor in
  home school partnerships by a number of authors
  including Shivnan, in research with Maori
  families, who defines empowerment as far more
  complex than merely enabling parents to have a
  voice. It involved an effective and sustaining
  partnership that was culturally and contextually
  specific (1999, p. 104).Bevan-Brown emphasised
  the importance of power sharing when working with
  Maori and the need for professionals to listen in
  order to learn (1993, 2002) while Parahi (1997)
  emphasised the importance of story telling as a
  tool for empowerment for Maori.

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Reliable Alliance

• Turnbull Turnbull (2001, p. 58) developed a
  Reliable Alliance model based on the premise
  that individual and collective empowerment
  occurs when families and professionals share
  equally the factors that constitute their
  resources in order to make joint decisions.

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Features of Reliable Alliance

• know yourself,
• knowing families
• honour cultural diversity,
• be able to affirm and build on family strengths,
• promote choices for families,
• affirm great expectations,
• communicate positively
• warrant trust and respect

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Empowerment

• Oliver Barnes (1998, p.228) emphasise the need
  for parents to be in a position of empowerment
  when dealing with professionals and they believe
  that evidence of disabled involvement in service
  delivery, is increasing.

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Hornbys Models

• Hornby (2001) has developed a number of models

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A Parents Perspective

• Wills (1993, p. 247) challenges professionals to
  begin to share the power they had in educational
  settings with parents
• It is time to demand that the professionals, who
  are the gatekeepers to the resources, attend to
  and act on the voices of parents and of disabled
  people.

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Conclusion

• A number of common themes have recurred over the
  course of this review. The notion of the
  importance of empowerment for parents, power
  sharing in order for this to occur, honest and
  open channels of communication, trusting and
  respecting one another as well as the importance
  of listening have all emerged in a variety of
  contexts and from a number of different points of
  view. Sadly though, some parents of children
  with special needs are becoming tired about the
  notion of parent professional partnership as they
  do not believe professionals (in this context
  educators) are open or willing to change.

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• There are a variety of reasons why this may be
  the case when examining the New Zealand
  situation. In particular, it may be due to the
  increased administrative duties of the classroom
  teacher and consequently an increase in workload.
  Whatever the reason, in order for change to
  occur I believe this key concept of partnership
  between home and school, which impacts so
  strongly on the child who is central to this
  whole process must not become merely another
  fad.

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• Strong evidence in both New Zealand and
  internationally points to the impact of this
  critical relationship between home and school and
  increasingly community. I believe Fraser
  (2000, p. 29) understands the importance of
  partnership and its impact when she wrote
• Teachers who value partnership work to make it
  happen. They realise that there is nothing to
  lose and much to gain by sharing and
  collaborating. They learn to listen carefully
  and attend courses that enable them to become
  more effective communicators. They value the
  input of parents, whanau and other professionals
  and seek to keep the focus on the students and
  their needs and strengths.

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References

• Bevan-Brown, J. (1993). Intellectual Disability
  A Maori Perspective (Ch.11) in Ballard, K.
  (1993). Disability, Family Whanau and Society.
  Palmerston North Dunmore Press.
• Brown, C. Wills, R. (2000) Special Education
  2000 Getting it right Together? Paper
  presented to International Special Education
  Congress 2000, 24-28 July.
• Dale, N. (1996) Working with Families of Children
  with Special Needs partnership and practice.
  LondonRoutledge.
• Davis, K. (1993) The crafting of good clients,
  in Finkelstein, V., French, S Oliver, M.(Eds.)
  Disabling Barriers enabling environments,
  London Sage.
• Epstein, J. L. (2003). Personal correspondence.
• Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, Family and
  Community Partnerships Preparing Educators and
  Improving Schools. Boulder Westview Press .
• Fraser, D. (2000). Partnerships with
  Parents/Caregivers and Whanau (Ch. 5) in Fraser,
  D., Moltzen, R. Ryba, K. (2000) Learners with
  Special Needs in Aotearoa New Zealand. Palmerston
  North Dunmore Press.

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• Hornby, G. (2003), personal correspondence.
• Hornby, G. (2002). Partnerships for Positive
  Change in Special Education in REACH Journal of
  Special Needs Education in Ireland, 16, 1, 3
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• Ministry of Education. (2001). New Zealand
  Schools Nga Kura O Aotearoa A Report on the
  Compulsary Schools Sector in New Zealand 2000.
  Wellington Ministry of Education.
• Oliver, M. Barnes, C. (1998). Disabled People
  and Social Policy from exclusion to inclusion.
  Harlow Longman.
• Parahi, V. Nagel, G. (1997, August) Inana O Te
  Whanau Family Stories  A Qualitative
  Collaborative Study. Paper presented at the
  ICEVI Conference, Sao Paulo.
• Rosin, P., Whitehead, A. D., Tuchman, L.,
  Jesien, G.S., Begun, A. Irwin, L. (1995).
  Partnerships in Family-Centered Care A Guide to
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  BaltimoreBrookes
• Shivnan, S. V. (1999). An Ethnographic inquiry
  into the Empowerment of Maori Families within a
  Mainstream Early Childhood Setting. M. Ed.,
  School of Education University of Waikato.
• Turnbull, A. Turnbull, R. (2001) Families,
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  for Empowerment (4th ed.) New Jersey Merrill.
• Wills, R. (1993) It is time to Stop (Ch. 13) in
  Ballard, K. (1994). Disability, Family Whanau and
  Society. Palmerston North Dunmore Press.