Assignment: Demonstrating Expertise in the Field of Special EducationAs an expert in the field of special education, you may be called upon to share your experiences and expertise with colleagues, adm
Lack of Parent Involvement
The field of special education is faced with a lot of issues which end up impacting education negatively. An issue, I would like to address is the lack of parent involvement in special education. There is need of ending this issue to enhance growth for special education students. Parents mostly have no interest in schooling children with special needs, either because they don’t want to be bothered or refusal to believe the existence of a problem. Students spend more than sixty percent of their time outside school. Parents should participate in meetings, be board members, and conferences, because their children might be facing difficulties in school. This will ensure that reinforce lessons and subjects are taken in consideration (Rock et al., 2016). This also enables parents to have a better understanding of their children’s performance. On the other hand, parents should ensure continual support of their children through provision of learning materials. Schools should use traditional methods such as announcements or non-traditional methods like phone calls and sending emails to encourage parent involvement in special education.
In this article of Ntekane (2018), emphasizes the involvement of parents and how schools make use of traditional and non-traditional methods to encourage parental involvement. In this article based on Guant (n.d.), would be against my position, because it argues that pushing parents strongly to be involved in committees and PTA can be highly beneficial schools, but it can leave some parents feeling alienated if they cannot be involved in traditional manner due to commitments in regards to their job. It also insists that some parents are highly involved that they end up destructing the children, because school is a place of learning. Guant, (n.d.), emphasizes that a high involvement with parents may lead to an issue, because teachers feel that special education children can handle themselves. Also, Guant (n.d.), argues that some special education children may be distracted by the presence of their parents.
According to Ntekane (2018), indicates the importance of parent’s involvement in meetings can lead to the performance of their children. Ntekane (2018), also indicates the importance of following up with teachers and the importance of using traditional and non-traditional methods in special education. This makes it more compelling than the other article which just shows parents will be alienated if not properly involved due to commitments, which distracts the privacy of their own children. These are minor negative impacts for schools and special education children.
In Ntekane (2018), it highly supports parent involvement in special education. It positions are involvement of parents in meetings and conferences, following up with teachers and the use of both traditional and non-traditional methods by schools that are applicable to involve parents in education. In Guant (n.d.), it does not support involvement of parents as it leads to issues which special education children are able to do, which can make some of their own children uncomfortable if their parents appear in the classroom. It continues to state that some teachers may be uncomfortable with the involvement and it argues that some parents may feel uncomfortable due to failure to actively participate due to other commitments.
My position on lack of parent involvement in special education is that parents should be involved through participation in meetings, being board members and even following up teachers to see how their can solve the challenges faced by their children in school. Also, in my position schools should make use of either traditional or non-traditional methods to involve the parents.
Based on Ntekane (2018), makes a more compelling case as it shows the importance of parent involvement in special education. Parent involvement helps resolve challenges faced by students in school, makes parents understand their children and enables parents to support their children through assignments.
In consideration of each article my professional position has been validated as the opposing article gives disadvantages which are not major such as feeling alienated due to lack of involvement. Finally, I feel there is need for parent involvement in special education to assist children and students in their assignments and homework. This can give them interest in education and even understand them better. Schools should encourage parent involvement through pushing them to participate in board meetings and conferences. Also, schools can encourage the involvement by communicating with the parents through announcements, phone call or making use of emails.
References
Guant, R. (n.d.). What are the advantages & disadvantages of parent involvement in education? Retrieved from https://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-disadvantages-parent-involvement-education-4072.html.
Ntekane, A. (2018). Parental involvement in education. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324497851.
Rock, M. L., Spooner, F., Nagro, S., Vasquez, E., Dunn, C., Leko, M., ... & Jones, J. L. (2016). 21st century change drivers: Considerations for constructing transformative models of special education teacher development. Teacher Education and Special Education, 39(2), 98-120.