Broomhead, Karen and Warin, Jo (2013) Socio-Emotional Aspects of Home-School Relationships regarding Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs and Educational Practitioners : Perceptions of Blame, Stigma, Partnership and Empathy. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
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Abstract
There are frequent suggestions that parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and educational practitioners (practitioners) experience adversarial home-school relationships. Yet there was scope to explore the influence of the perceived nature of children's SENs on socio-emotional issues implicated in these relationships, namely blame and its closely related concept of stigma, in addition to partnership and empathy. Previous literature in this specific area had predominantly focused on parents who had children with the label of Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD). This provided opportunity to also give voice to parents of children with other SENs in further depth, as well as practitioners. This study therefore investigated socio-emotional aspects of home-school relationships with parents of children with SEN and practitioners. in accordance with a conceptual framework involving blame, stigma. partnership and empathy. Weiner's (1980) attributional model regarding the perceived controllability of stigmas was used as a theoretical lens. Based on an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 parents of children with SEN (both with and without the label of BESD), and 15 practitioners. Findings identified how the perceived nature of children's SENs influenced perceptions of controllability, which impacted on experiences of blame, guilt and stigma. These experiences framed interest in 'labels' of SEN for children. With regards to partnership and empathy. the following factors were influential: practitioner approachability and trustworthiness, elements implicated in social class, head teacher approaches to SEN, and whether practitioners had children with SEN themselves. This thesis highlights the importance of eliciting the experiences of parents of children with varying labels of SEN, who had very different stories to tell, whilst also recognising the need to give voice to both parents and professionals when considering socio-emotional aspects of home-school relationships. The need for wider practitioner investment in, and socio-emotional understanding of, the 'experiences of parents is also considered.