Views of Parents Held by Teachers in Special Schools for Students With Intellectual Disabilities in Relation to Career Guidance

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to examine (a) the views of parents held by teachers in special schools for students with intellectual disabilities in relation to career guidance, (b) the relation between the school grade for which the teachers were responsible and their views of their students' parents, (c) the correlation between the teachers' views of parents and their perceived difficulty in providing guidance, and (d) the relation between parents' involvement and teachers' awareness of support. Participants, 164 teachers from the senior high school section of 7 special schools for students with intellectual disabilities, were asked about their views of parents, awareness of support, and perceived difficulty in providing guidance. Factor analysis revealed the following 4 factors: "underdeveloped awareness of future career paths", "support in the home", "resistance toward society", and "assertion of own will". The data suggested that the teachers viewed parents from multiple perspectives. The results from an analysis of variance, with the grade for which the teachers were responsible as the independent variable, and teachers' views of parents as the dependent variable, revealed a gap in "assertion of will" across grades, and suggested that there was an improvement in the teachers' views of parents in the senior year. No significant correlation was found between teachers' views of parents and perceived difficulty in providing guidance for "resistance toward society", and only weak correlations were found for the other 3 factors. These results indicate that teachers' difficulty in providing guidance does not seem to be associated with their views of parents. Furthermore, when a path analysis of parents' involvement and teachers' awareness of support was conducted, the path diagrams constructed to depict teachers' views of parents and awareness of support in relation to career guidance appeared to be appropriate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)