Exploring Opportunities and Challenges in Parent–School Partnerships in Special Needs Schools in the Gauteng Province, South Africa

In this study, opportunities and challenges in parent–school partnerships in special needs schools were explored as the researchers’ noted that parents were usually reluctant to participate in curricular planning, learning support provisioning and the development of Individual Education Support Plans. Three focus group interviews were conducted with parents and data were analysed for recurrent themes within an interpretive framework. The challenges identified were related to family emotional stability, socio-economic constraints and the stigma of attending a special educational needs (SEN) school. Since parents’ experience trauma when placing their children in a SEN school, they turn towards the school for emotional support and guidance. However, parents felt disconnected from the school by inadequate teacher knowledge of family circumstances, insufficient opportunities for interaction amongst families and limited school communication to parents. These challenges led to misconceptions by parents and subsequent marginalizing of many families from the school, which further exacerbated their child’s learning problems. These challenges provided opportunities for SEN schools to develop guidelines for improving parent school partnerships.