(Multi-)Professional cooperation in the transition to school of children with disabilities. Cooperation processes from the perspectives of preschool teachers

Abstract

The interest of the present article is to identify the professions involved in (multi-)professional cooperation processes in the context of school entry of children with disabilities as well as to examine the type and content of the cooperation processes from the perspectives of the preschool teachers involved. A specific focus is on transition-related parent-teacher meetings and the cooperation in the context of these meetings. The data were collected using qualitative guideline-based interviews with n = 22 preschool teachers and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results show that—in addition to other preschool teachers and school teachers—professions with a therapeutic focus are the main cooperation partners both in the parent-teacher meetings and in further cooperation processes. The cooperation processes aim at (1) communication between the stakeholders involved, (2) alignment of pedagogical guidance and support of the child, and (3) activities for joint professionalisation. Based on these results, we develop a model of cooperation in the context of transition to school of children with disabilities.