Most parents conceive of their child as a sort of "advertisement" for themselves. Therefore, if a couple gives birth to a child with special educational needs, they may feel that the child has turned out "imperfect" because there is something wrong with them. This inevitably influences not only their self image but also their involvement in their child's education. The present research aimed to find out more about parental involvement by investigating the attitudes of parents and special education teachers on parental involvement in special education in Cyprus. A cross section of qualitative and quantitative research methodology was used, including interviews and questionnaires. The results indicated that both parents and teachers are willing to work together. Both parents and special education teachers confessed to the existence of informal parental involvement despite the legal inadequacies and restrictions. Under the circumstances it would appear appropriate for the Ministry of Education and Culture to formalise intervention programmes for parental involvement.
The father of a baby with Down's syndrome said:
When you are told that your child is abnormal in some way, you are assailed by the most extraordinary feeling of bleakness and complete despair. When it happened to me, I felt sort of detached and outside myself in a way I have not experienced before or since. There is the feeling that the world and all the people in it have changed, and that things will never be the same again. There is a sense of complete isolation and of difference. You find yourself grappling with feelings which you don't understand, and with thoughts that you dare not mention to anyone" (Newson and Hipgrave, 1983, p. 114).
What a significant word "reproduction" is! It underlines the fact that when we have children we expect them to be, at least to some degree, little copies of ourselves. Nobody quite wants an exact copy, but we search in their faces for Mummy's eyes, Daddy's mouth and so on and we are thrilled and amused if we can detect the family toes on a tiny pink foot (Younghusband et al, 1970). Most parents conceive of their child as a sort of "advertisement" for themselves. If we give birth to a child with special educational needs, parents may feel that there is something wrong with them and that is why the child turned out "imperfect". The fact that people know "it may have happened to anybody", does not stop parents feeling that it happen to them, therefore there must be something wrong with them. There seems to be a strong feeling in human beings that they somehow prove themselves as persons by reproducing themselves.
These feelings, can unfortunately strike deep at parent's self-confidence, just at a time when parents may need all the confidence they can get.
Discovering that your child has a special need or a disability is probably one of the most devastating experiences that a parent will live through. Often parents are overwhelmed with emotions to hear that their child will not be the "perfect baby" that they were expecting, that the child will have some special needs, and that he/she will be a continuing challenge to be met thought out their lives (Casswell, 1995).
Parents and professionals are increasingly being encouraged to work together in serving children with Special Educational Needs (Gocth, 1977). This has been a positive and exciting development because it maximises two important sources of influence for the child: on the one hand, there are the parents who invest the largest amount of time and energy in caring for their child and consequently know him/her best. On the other hand, there are professionals who have received training and experience in the nature of special needs conditions. By working together, information about an individual child may be communicated from parent to professional and an understanding of the nature of special needs can be transmitted from professional to parent and vice versa. The relationship between student success in school and parent involvement has been well documented in the literature (Epstein, 1987, Flaxman & Inger, 1991, Manon & Blackwell 1992,). A close parent-professional relationship can be important for other reasons as well. Parents often have a very strong emotional investment in their child and they best understand the needs, the interests and the joys of their child. From the other point of view, a professional may have objectivity which can serve to highlight important areas that might not otherwise be identified by involved parents and can provide a perspective on the longer term aspects of the child's development. By combining parental concern with professional objectivity one can effectively devise an overall treatment plan, which incorporates both the specific individualised needs of the child and the family and more general long-term goals that are of concern.
Parents are the co-educators of children. Most education happens outside school and in the family, especially in the early years (Macbeth, 1990). Parents also influence the sort of community-learning which their child will acquire. Since parents inescapably educate their children, it is important that a professional teacher does not neglect parents i.e. non-professional educators. Parents are co-educators of children whether that suits the professional preferences of teachers or not (Macbeth, 1990).
The discovery of a child with mental handicap represents a crisis event in the life of any family. Most families make some sort of adaptation to what has happened and learn to live with the consequences and to find fulfilment in bringing up a disabled member of society. Others however, may not be able to make such an adjustment. Where one person will cope, another will not. (Ballard, 1982).
The presence of a mentally handicapped child in any family represents a more than usually potent source of threat to its members. The parents have been presented with a totally unwanted situation and will have ambivalent feelings to overcome, especially initially. As the years go by, the parents and the other children of the family will be restricted in how they want to lead with their lives in all sorts of ways and the normal expectations about children and how they grow up and gain independence will have to be relearned by all involved. Individual's capacity to cope, both with each other and the handicapped member will be tested to a greater extent than is usually experienced by normal families.
Parental involvement is not a popular subject for research in Cyprus. Especially the involvement of parents who have children with Special Educational Needs is a relatively new area of enquiry. Special Education in Cyprus is also something new, and that is the main reason why we do not have much information about parental involvement with regard to special education. Phtiaka (1997a) carried out a study about parental involvement in the education process of children with Special Educational Needs and the main findings of this research were as follows:
(Phtiaka, 1997a)
It seems that parents are largely unsatisfied with
the existing provision. As Phtiaka (1997b) suggested teachers and generally the
educational system in Cyprus need to keep parents informed on what the needs of
their child are, their child's progress and they need to show parents ways in
which they can help their child. Parents on the other hand, need to insist on
being informed about all the issues surrounding their child and be supportive
of the child's school and education.
The main purpose of the present study was to examine both the attitudes of parents and the attitudes of special education teachers with regard to parental involvement in Cyprus. The following research questions had been established for this research:
The main method that was used in this study was the interview and more specifically, the semi-structured interview. The interviewer developed a set of questions in advance but she was free to modify their order based upon her perception of what it seemed more appropriate in the context of the conversation. The interviewer also gave explanations, where necessary.
The mothers of the children with mental handicap and the special education teachers involved with the children were interviewed. The interview of the mothers and the interview of the special education teachers included two types of questions, closed and open questions.
In addition, in order to find out what the feelings of the mothers were about their child with mental handicap, scaled items were used. The interview schedule also included background information such as place of birth, age, education, marital status, maternal income and family history of educational difficulties
The sample for this research was 20 mothers, who had a child with mental handicap and also the 10 special education teachers of those children. The ten mothers where of both rural and urban origin. The average age of the children was 13 years, ranging between 10 to 16 years. These children were attending one of the Special Schools in Cyprus, the "Euaggelismos", Special School. All of those children had been assessed by an educational psychologist and they had been diagnosed as having mental handicap.
The special education teachers, were full-time teachers in the Special School "Euaggelismos". Seven of them, were ordinary teachers, without any special qualifications concerning special education, two of them had a bachelor's degree and also a master degree in special education and one had a master in special education and a general bachelor's degree in education.
Coming now to the results of the research we will start with the results concerning the relationships between the child and his/her family from the parents point of view
Table 1 presents the results of self-evaluation of parents when asked to describe the relationship between the child and the family. First of all, we can see that according to the mothers, 12 of the children had very good relationships with their father, 4 children had good relationship with their father and 4 had moderately good relationships with their father. If we move to the relationship between the child and his/her siblings we can see that 10 of the children had very good relationships, six had good relationships and 3 had moderately good relationships.
Table 1
The relationship between the child and
his/her family
(from the parents point of view)
| Relationship between the child and his/her father | Relationship between the child and his/her siblings | |
| Very Good | 12 | 10 |
| Good | 4 | 6 |
| Moderate | 4 | 4 |
Another indicator of relationships in the family is how many hours did mothers spend with their child on a daily basis. Figure 1 shows that most of the mothers spent 6-8 hours per day with their child. Specifically 12 mothers spent 6-8 hours with their child, 4 spent 4-6 hours with their children, 2 spent 2-4 hours and finally 2 mother suggested she spent 0-2 hours with her child.
Shared time was spent playing games, talking, going for shopping, and cleaning the house. None of the mothers said that they tried to do educational activities at home.
Another factor that may influence relationships involves the educational status of the parents themselves. 18 mothers did not have any educational difficulties while they were students. Only 2 mothers said that she had some learning difficulties while they were students. In addition none of the 20 families had more than one child with mental handicap or learning difficulties. Thus, the sample studied did not include a large proportion of mothers who themselves had special educational needs when in school nor families with a number of children with learning difficulties.
2.2. Relationships between the family and the school, from the parents point of view
Half of the mothers in the study described their relationship to the
special education teacher as very good. Eight of the mothers described their
relationships as good and two as moderately good.
Table 2 presents
information regarding the relationship between the child's father and the
special education teacher. Eight of the fathers had very good relationship, six
had good relationships with their children's special education teacher and six
had moderately good relationships. Twelve children had very good relationships
with their teacher. Eight children suggested they had a good relationship.
Finally, ten of the mothers said that they had a very good relationship with
the administration of the school and the rest of them said that they had a good
relationship with the administration of the school.
Table 2
The relationship between the family of
the child and the school that the child is attending (from the parents point of
view)
| Relationship between the mother of the child and the teacher | Relationship between the father of the child and the teacher | Relationship between the child and his/her teacher | Relationship between the parents of the child and the administration of the school | |
| Very Good | 10 | 8 | 12 | 10 |
| Good | 8 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Moderate | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
2.3. Relationship between the family and the school, from the teachers point of view
As we have already said before, we interviewed both the mothers and the special teachers, about home-school relationships. Table 3, provide information about the school-home relationship, but from the teachers' point of view. The relationship between the child and his/her special teacher was very good in ten cases. For the rest of the cases the relationships between the child and the special education teacher was described as good. Furthermore, it was noted that the relationships between the family and the school were described as very good in twelve cases and as good in eight cases.
Table 3
The relationship between the child's
family and the school (from the teachers point of view)
| Relationship between the child and his/her teacher | Relationship between the family of the child and the school | |
| Very Good | 10 | 12 |
| Good | 10 | 8 |
| Moderate | 0 | 0 |
Teachers said to the researcher that parents visited school of their own choice and not at the request of the school. In all the cases the teachers explained that the visiting persons were usually mothers and not fathers.
3. Parental Acceptance of Mental Handicap
Table 4 presents a summary of the findings with respect to parental acceptance. If statement 1, statement 2 and statement 5 of the questionnaire were positively agreed with, then one could conclude that parents accepted their children. From table 3 we can see that for statement 1 (my child does things that make me feel happy), there were 14 agreements. For statement 2 (most of the time I think that my child loves me and wants to be with me) there were 20 agreements. Finally for statement 5 (my child is able to do as many things as I expect him/her to do) we can see that there were twelve agreements. Thus it appears that most mothers accepted their children and identified themselves with positive attitudes about their children.
Table 4
Do mothers accept their child?
| Statement 1 | Statement 2 | Statement 5 | ||||||||||||||
|
|
|
We also examined other items were disagreements have accepted to confirm these findings and these are presented in table 5. For statement 3 (sometimes I feel that my child does not accept and does not want to be with me), there were 18 disagreements. For statement 4 (my child looks different from the other children and that makes me feel bad sometimes), there were ten disagreements and eight agreements. For statement 6 (since I have brought my child from the hospital I found out that I am not able to take care of him/her as I expected, so I need some help), there were twelve disagreements. For statement 7 (I believe that the needs of my child control my life) there were only six disagreements. For statement 8 (I often feel guilty because of the feelings I have for my child), there were twenty disagreements. Thus it appears that most parents had accepted their children for what they were.
4. Individual Educational Programme (I.E.P.)
The existence of the I.E.P. (Individual Educational Programme) is essential for children with special educational needs, and in our case for children with mental handicap. As we can see from the following table, most of the parents believed that there was no I.E.P. for their child, and only two of the parents were aware of the existence of an I.E.P. for their child. From the teachers' point of view, all the teachers believed that every child had his/her I.E.P. and they also gave to the researcher information about the I.E.P..
Table 5
Did the child have an I.E.P.
(individual educational programme) at the school? What parents and what
teachers believe
| Parents | Teachers | ||||||||
|
|
5. Children's Educational Performance
Coming now to the results concerning the children educational performance. We can see that almost all the results show that almost all the mothers knew the capability of their child. 18 of the 20 mothers knew that the educational performance of their child was below average. Only two mothers believed that the educational performance of her child was average.
All parents informed the researcher that they were used to requesting information about their child's progress from the special education teachers when they visited the school.
Furthermore, parents indicated the sort of factors that may influence their child's educational progress. Follow is a list of factors suggested by the parents:
6. Beliefs to Parental Associations
Figure 3 shows the data on parental associations. It was found that that ten of the mothers were members of the parents association while ten were not members of the parents association.
7. Awareness of the Law
18 of the mothers did not know anything about the existing Special Education law in Cyprus, so they were unable to comment with regard to the law. The four mothers who said they were aware of the law pointed out that the law did not give parents any rights and that they wanted more rights. They showed their dissatisfaction and their desire to gain more rights and to receive more help from the Ministry of Education and Culture.
8. Parental Involvement
When the researcher asked the mothers if they believed in parental involvement, all of the mothers said that they believed in parental involvement. But when the mothers were asked if they wanted to get involved in the educational programmes of their children, four mothers responded negatively. Those four mothers argued that the reason for their lack of interest in involvement was because they were tired of the Ministry of Education and Culture and from the government in general as well.
Table 6
Are the parents and the special
education teachers willing to get involved into intervention programmes?
| Mothers | Teachers | ||||||||
|
|
Parents that were interested in getting involved in their children's educational programmes mentioned several reasons why this may be the case. Some examples included:
All the parents also said that they were willing to use their spare time for parental involvement if necessary. From the teachers point of view the following reasons were given to explain why teachers believed in the need for parental involvement:
Teachers had also clarified that even though the Ministry of Education and Culture and the existing law about Special Education did not provide guidelines for parental involvement in Cyprus there was some form of parental involvement for children with mental handicap in Cyprus. All the special education teachers that were interviewed paid great attention to the information that parents gave to them about their child. Especially at the beginning of the school year, when a new child goes to their school, it is the policy of the specific school in this study to invite the parents and collect as much information as possible from them. Also during the school year parents who were not in position to visit the school very often were visited at home by the teachers to talk to them about their child's progress. From the parents point of view, it can be said that all parents felt free to call the special education teachers at home and ask them about their child progress. Also parents said that sometimes they asked the teacher to give them further information about a subject, or requested that they referred them to a more qualified person for help when needed.
D. Conclusions
Having in mind the results it can be concluded that according to the mothers of the children with mental handicap, both fathers and siblings have good relationships with the children. Also most of the mothers said that they spent a significant amount of time with their children. But the important question here is what are they doing during the hours that they spend with their children? The mothers said that the shared time was spent playing games, talking, going shopping, e.t.c. None of the mothers said that they tried to do educational activities at home. This is worth mentioning because activities like these is very important for mental handicap children.
The low educational status of the mothers made it very difficult for the mothers to help their children in an educational sense. What is fundamental is that the mothers said that they wanted to help their child, but they were uncertain of how they could help him/her. It is here that the professionals must help the parents, both the mothers and the fathers, by showing them ways in which they can help their child effectively, for them to gain confidence and continue the educational work at home whenever possible and practical.
If we were evident from the data of this study that mothers accepted their child and according to Hornby (1995) they are either at the stage of reorganisation or at the stage of acceptance. Phtiaka (1997a), shares the same point of view, i.e. that the vast majority of parents accept and love their special educational needs children as they are. Even though the mothers came to accept their child, there was indicate evidence that the fathers of mentally handicapped children had not accepted the fact that they had a mentally handicapped child. This is one of the most important reasons why the researcher did not manage to interview both parents. In the literature (Cheseldine & McConkey, 1979) it is claimed that fathers of mentally handicapped children need more support than mothers. Fathers feel insecure and less able to help their child, in contrast to the mothers. Sandler et al. (1983) found that as their training programme with the mothers progressed, fathers tended to express more negative attitudes about the child and the family interaction. So it is essential for the professionals to try and help the fathers of mentally handicapped children accept their children, because if they do not accept their child then they can not help him/her.
School-Home Relationships
School-Home relationships were found to be good. Both special education teachers and mothers of mentally handicapped children appeared to have good relationships. Also the relationships between the administration of the school and the family were described as good, from both mothers and special education teachers. When it is known that the relationships between home and school are good, then it can be said that parents of mentally handicapped children are ready for sharing in the implementation of intervention programmes.
Mothers of mentally handicapped children believe that professionals are better equipped to offer advice as to the appropriate ways in which they should help their children. This is the main reason why they see themselves as less able to help their children. In the literature attitudes like these are not unusual. Weinhouse and Weinhouse (1994) assumed that there are parents who believe that they are less perceptive and intelligent than professionals. Also Georgiou (1996) found that even though parents want to get involved they resent the fact that parents have the upper hand in the home-school relationships. The participants in this research clearly stated that they wanted to get involved in their child's educational process, but they can not because of the way the system works at present (see section on changes needed in education).
Parental Involvement
Special Education teachers and mothers of mentally handicapped children are more than willing to get involved in their children's educational process. What is even more important is that they want to get involved because they have a clear understanding of the benefits that their involvement will offer. Bronfebrenner (1979), suggests that parents from the lower extreme of the socio-economic distribution will probably not be able to benefit from any programme that involves them working with their child. In the case of this research, even though most of the parents were from the lower socio-economic status, they were very interested in the intervention programmes and it was thought that their involvement would be beneficial.
Georgiou (1996), also found that both parents and special education teachers theoretically accept the idea that family and school should co-operate. It is when the plans for this co-operation become more specific that they realise that the agendas of the family in relation to the agendas of the school may be quite different. In the case of this research, we do not know if this will happen. The uncertainty is based on the fact that the researcher did not try to apply the said intervention programmes, in order to verify if what Georgiou (1996) suggested is true.
In addition to all the above, the results of this research make the researcher disagree with Georgiou (1996), because he said that in Cyprus richer families are more interested in their children than poorer families. In this research almost all the families came from a very low socio-economic status, but they were interested in the future of their children and they wanted to offer the best to their children. Hence, it can not be said that the socio-economic status necessarily influences the interest that parents have for their special needs child.
Cunnigham (1975), pointed out that even though parents who have received further education are able to learn from literature and reading, the educational level of parents does not appear to affect the ability of parents to teach their child. Parents with lower educational levels may need more demonstrations and discussions. It is thought that Cunnigham (1975), argument could be easily applied to the situation found in Cyprus.
Changes Needed in Education
Phtiaka (1997b) found that parents of children with special educational needs believe that there is a need for change and improvement in their children's education. In order for any results to occur, changes must take place in two very important areas. Firstly, within the educational system and secondly within the existing Special Education Law.
In the existing educational system there are many components that must be seriously examined and altered before any changes can be felt by the families of children with special educational needs. The mothers have mentioned several suggestions as to the nature of these various changes. First of all, each class must have a smaller number of students and there must be less heterogeneity of cases within the classrooms. Also the policy of the school, with reference to the involvement of parents must change and new policy must definitely allow and encourage parents to take part in the educational process of their children. The Parents Associations must work harder and must have more rights. They must get involved in the educational decision-making and they must have access to the school's everyday life. This is very important because according to Georgiou (1995), the only things that Parents Associations used to do is raise money through the organisation of various events and help the school financially. This is a worthwhile and necessary part of Parent Associations, but the everyday concerns of the education of the children should be at the forefront of the agenda.
As it had already been mentioned, in Cyprus there are not many special education teachers, but there are many teachers who call themselves special education teachers, without having the qualifications to do so. Special Education teachers are concerned about possible threats to their professionalism if parents are involved in schooling (Phtiaka, 1996b). And the reason why they have those feelings is because they do not have the special education qualifications. In order to change this situation the Ministry of Education and Culture must unminder making two changes:
1. Through seminars and workshops, and in-service training improve the
qualifications of existing special education teachers.
2. To make it
mandatory for new appointments to be qualified special education teachers.
The Ministry of Education and Culture must change, as soon as possible its policy for the involvement of parents of special educational needs children. In doing this, the Ministry must have in mind the key principles of parental involvement: rights, equality, reciprocity, empowerment (Wolfendale, 1992). At present there are no guidelines of parental involvement and therefore there is little pressure to see this as an important part of the children's education.
Also the Ministry of Education and Culture must try to apply the Negotiating Model (Doise, 1986). The reason for which this model have been chosen is because this model addressed how diverse and even discrepant view-points can be brought together and reconciled to allow joint activity and decision-making. This model depends on the goodwill of the professionals with parents and as shown in this research it appeared that goodwill is available in Cyprus. One way in which this model can be applied by the Ministry of Education and Culture is by bringing some experts from abroad to guide and evaluate some intervention programmes.
In the specific case of children with mental handicap parents must be involved in the teaching of their children (Pugh, 1981). This research has shown that some parents are not informed about their children's education. Most of the parents did not know that their child had an individual educational programme (I.E.P.), even though the Ministry of Education and Culture places great importance on the individual educational programme of each child (Ministry of Education and Culture, 1996). Also parents must be involved in the assessment of their children's needs so that they can be aware of their children's difficulties and strengths in education.
In addition, Braothwaite (1992) and Raywidd (1987) argue that parents of children with Special Educational Needs must have the chance to choose the school for their children. This is one of the essential rights that parents must have. In Cyprus, the special education child goes to the specific school that the Psycho-pedagogical Committee decides to send him/her. In the writer's opinion this does not encourage the parent-school relationships. If partnerships and parental involvement are to be taken seriously this should be obvious from the top-down as well` as bottom up, therefore it is not desirable to have a law that so blatantly disregards parental opinion and rights. This law must be changed. Finally, and this may be the most serious and most difficult change that must take place, that is Special Education must be separated from Primary Education. As it currently stands, all children with significant special educational needs have to attend primary level education. There is no option for them to stay with age peers and attend secondary schooling. This in it self represents a limitation in terms of the possible development of these children and of the educational services for them.
From all the above it must be said that parents of mentally handicapped children and especially the mothers of mentally handicapped children and special education teachers are ready for the application of some joint intervention programmes that foster parental involvement, for example the portage scheme (Windsor, 1988). The results of this research can not be applied generally because the sample was small. So it is essential that further research take place in Cyprus. Future research must investigate more widely the attitudes of parents (mothers and fathers) who have special needs children (all the categories of special needs). The attitudes of special education teachers must also be included.
E. References
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