Effective Home-School Partnerships to Support Learners with Severe Intellectual Disabilities in South Africa: A Missing Ingredient to Attaining Inclusive Education, two decades later?

Almost two decades later since the promulgation of the White Paper 6 on inclusive education policy in South Africa, the nation has yet to attain what the policy provided as practical inclusion guidelines within the education fraternity. Parental involvement is one of the guidelines that continue to be highlighted as an area of development in the field of inclusive education literature. The involvement of parents in the education of their children often yields positive educational outcomes in general. Therefore, the same can be expected from parental involvement in the education of children with severe intellectual disabilities (SID). There is a dearth of information on how much parents know about what is expected from them if a functional home-school partnership is to be attained. The study aimed to investigate how much parents whose children are diagnosed with SID know about home-school partnerships. The data presented here are results of individual face-to-face interviews with eight (8) South African parents of foundation phase learners diagnosed with severe intellectual disabilities. A minimum of two parents from each of the four identified full-service schools and special needs schools were chosen. Parents who were chosen for the study were those who had experience taking care of and supporting learners with SID. These parents were specifically chosen since their experiences are pertinent to the research. An interpretive paradigm and a biographical design within a qualitative research approach were used in the study. The purposive sampling method consisted of eight (8) participants which are parents of learners diagnosed with severe intellectual disabilities and placed in Full-Service Schools and Special Needs Schools. Biographical and qualitative questionnaires were used in the data collection and data were analysed thematically. Findings suggest that parents have limited knowledge of home-school partnerships. Additionally, findings also indicate that parents need to be educated about home-school partnerships and the importance of forming such partnerships in supporting children with severe intellectual disabilities so that they can also understand the role they need to play in these partnerships. The findings of the study further indicate that parents have a limited understanding of what home-school partnerships are. Thus, they have minimal knowledge of the role they need to play in supporting their children with SID. Furthermore, findings suggest that schools need to be open to involving parents in strategies for forming successful partnerships. The study has unveiled the gaps between what parents know and ought to know to actively participate in home-school partnerships, for the learning enhancement of children with SID. Additionally, the recommendations suggest what can be done to address the existing gaps and fast-track the move toward attaining inclusive education guidelines.