Barriers to Parental Involvement in the Education of Learners with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

This study is an in-depth qualitative literature review on the barriers to parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities. The review adopted Paulo Freire’s theory in an attempt to illustrate the significant role that parents are supposed to play in the education of their children with intellectual disabilities. The findings revealed that the barriers to enhanced parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities include: low level of parental education, teachers’ negative attitude towards both the affected learners and their parents, economic constraints, stigmatization of intellectual disabilities, lack of support, parental stress/depression, lack of knowledge and skills, the number of siblings in the family, mismatched expectations (between parents and teachers), absence of legal/policy frameworks on parental involvement, absence of clear channels of communication between parents and school personnel and, the severity of the child’s disability. As a result of the findings, some suggestions to enhance parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities are given, these include: parental education, economic emancipation of the parents, change of teachers’ attitude, specialized training for all persons handling the learners with intellectual disability, establishment of positive home-school working relationships, proper legislation on handling people with disabilities, civic education on human rights and, development of a policy framework to guide school-home collaborations.