Critically evaluate the effectiveness of your school’s working partnerships with pupils, families and professionals in securing the best possible outcomes for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
1. Introduction, background, and rationale.
According to Abed (2014), individual children’s needs would be met if professionals partner closely with the families of pupils with special needs education and disabilities. For several years recently, there has been a growing concern regarding the partnership of parents and professionals in ensuring the inclusivity of both parties for the success of educational goals for special education needs pupils with specific disabilities compared to the average children. There somewhat remains a more significant gap to be filled concerning the education of special needs education pupils as some concerns such as trust, distance, and other misfortunes accompanying the partnership are still unsolved or remain not of interest during implementation processes involved. Collaboration from the basic understanding and inclusion of this context can be understood as the arrangement of two or more parties agreeing to achieve a particular mutual interest through cooperation. According to Wolfendale (1983), a partnership involving parents can be recognized as parents’ involvement in decision making and implementation. He further states that the partnership can be perceived as parents having equal and expertise level to professionals, with the ability to contribute and sharing responsibility where professionals are mutually accountable.
Many researchers have for a long time finding different ways in which the inclusion of parents in exceptional education pupils can be achieved for a mutual benefit to ensure that these children not only prosper but are understood from their perspective of weaknesses to their strengths. According to Norah Frederickson (2009),the Central Advisory Council for Education in 1967 concluded that parental attitude to schooling could significantly impact children educational achievement and they were among the first series of committees to emphasize on the relevance of parent involvement in the education process. Different changes that are outlined in the parent-professional partnership have in recent years been radical due to subsequent changes in the world. Various commentators according to Norah Frederickson (2009) emphasized on many challenges arising due to new policies an example being;
“Upton (1990: 4) reported that many were ‘concerned about the relevance of traditional subjects to children who present severe learning difficulties and the effects which the introduction of a narrowly conceived academic curriculum may have on the teaching of cross-curricular issues such as social and life skills.”
Different resolution efforts were therefore considered in the implementation of inclusion of partnership of various stakeholders such as parents as the main, professionals, and students. These resolutions, on the other end, resulted in a significant change and furthered the process of ensuring that special education needs and the disabled pupils benefited from an education that they receive.
The primary purpose that the research focuses on is the critical evaluation of the effectiveness of including different stakeholders such as pupils, families, and professionals through partnership in securing the best possible outcomes for pupils with special education needs and/or disabilities. I intend to use different dimensions and research to serve as a guiding course for some of the best implementations that will justify the inclusion for the mutual benefits of not only the pupils but also the other stakeholders involved in the process. The critical evaluation will help different schools strategically implement the inclusion of parents in the teaching-learning process, where both the parents and professionals play equally essential roles in the pupils’ educational progress.
The research will help in addition to other studies in a similar field help facilitate concerns of different schools that offer special education to pupils disabled in one way or another. The effectiveness of partners that are involved will be considered and the context in which each partner can be of importance through the services they offer, the roles played, and the influence they pose on the process. Through support by a variety of materials from different researchers and scholars, the research will help in influencing different considerations in the inclusion and consideration of partnership in the education process of the targeted school for evaluation.
For the efficiency of the evaluation to be critical, different questions have to be considered and emphasized. I will mainly focus on the potential consideration neglected that cause a barrier in the current education for special needs pupils and the disabled. The environment of learning also plays a critical role where these pupils are taught in a different environment from average pupils. This thus raises questions on the efficiency of the practices. Furthermore, why various barriers to parents and the family of the pupils are removed compared to before where the training was the only teacher-centred. Due to professional-parent partnership, concerns on the importance also attracted my attention to why it is considered necessary in a home environment and school environment. These factors from the evaluation, therefore, play a crucial role in helping me find whether my school has considerations of partnership with parents and the family in inclusive of education for pupils with special education needs and/or disabilities. Lastly, measures and practices that can be considered conducive and relevant in inclusive education in my school are also featured.
2. Methodological approach.
My school is the centre of the study; this renders the study a small scale given the considerations that the study only focused on a particular sample without the involvement of other schools for variations of hypothesis and conclusions. The main factor for the attention of the population is due to the deep understanding I possess regarding the context, what goes on and the practices that undergo within the school. I will also focus on consulting different professionals within the school setting to overcome the biases involved in opinionating issues. Various stakeholders will also be of significant impact in the research to ascertain whether the effects will be relevant and whether the inclusion of different practices and scraping off others will aid in the success of efficient integration.
In support of the information and data compiled, I will also include supporting material and research by different scholars relating to the primary research topic to efficiently compare and bring a clear understanding regarding the issue. Confidentiality will also be a priority regarding the individuals involved in the research, specifically in the school where most of the study will be of focus. Personal students’ and parents’ information regarding the issues will be retained for confidentiality, only including what is relevant to the research to ensure high adherence to ethical standards.
All the evidence gathered in addition to personal views regarding the current and previous practices on inclusive education will then be compiled and lead to the derivation of different conclusions regarding the issue. These conclusions will mainly be of concern on how effective inclusive education can be practised. Furthermore, the positive and also the negative impacts of inclusion will be featured to determine what should and should not be included. These conclusions will thus help me in the identification of best practices that will help my school consider effective inclusion practices in the parent, family, and professional partnership.
3. Literature review and theoretical framework.
References
Abed, M., 2014. Challenges to the Concept” Partnership with Parents” in Special Needs Education. Journal on Educational Psychology, 7(4), pp.1-11.
Cline, T. and Frederickson, N., 2009. Special educational needs, inclusion and diversity. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Wolfendale, S., 1983. Parental participation in children’s development and education (Vol. 3). Taylor & Francis.