Little things mean a lot: parent perspectives on positive teacher-parent communication when students have disability

Abstract

Productive teacher-parent partnerships are important to successful student outcomes and rely on positive teacher-parent communication, particularly when students have disability. Through semi-structured focus group and individual interviews, 17 parents of students with disability provided first-hand accounts of teacher communication that facilitated successful teacher-parent partnership. Key findings include the importance of the ‘little things’ that teachers say and do, for example, welcoming, day-to-day interactions that are foundational to effective teacher-parent communication. Other important contributions include examples of how teachers operationalise constructive communication, and contextual factors that enable positive teacher-parent interactions (for example, location, time). It was concluded that, despite extensive evidence in the literature of communication difficulties between teachers and parents of students with disability, many successful practices are being used by teachers. The findings reported here provide authentic insights into positive, productive teacher-parent communication strategies.