Joint Interventions with Teachers, Children and Parents in the School Setting

Stepping over the boundary: an exploration of educational psychologists’ work with families

“…At the time of writing The Family and the School, the notion of the importance of cooperation between teachers and parents was not new, and it was generally accepted that families and schools cannot operate in isolation without detrimental effect to the children (Kaplan, 1971). However, Dowling and Pound (1994) stated that there were few reported attempts at a multi-systems intervention even though the contextual complexity of school related problems for children was broadly understood by professionals. They highlighted those of Hobbs (1975) who applied ecological strategies, Tucker and Dyson (1976), who applied family systems theories, , and Freund and Cardwell (1977) who reported interventions taking account of a complex web of interactions.…”

“…In this way broken relationships between school and family can lead to future behaviour issues within school and a wider persistent and perhaps paranoid attitude towards authority and systems outside the family. Dowling and Pound (1994) Nolan and Moreland (2014) discussed the process of joint consultations with schools and families, with consultations carried out by two EPs. The sessions were presented as being collaborative in nature to all involved, and it was found that the EPs were able to facilitate effective communication between the family and school that often continued after the consultation session.…”

“…This model of working reflects the approach taken by Nolan and Moreland (2014) who reported the use of joint consultations with schools and families, which were collaborative in nature, where EPs were able to facilitate effective communication between the family and school to bring about a shift in the dynamic created through the collaboration of the consultation process. This is the approach which was first highlighted by Dowling and Pound (1994) who illustrated cases where joint family consultations brought about changes for children in school through building understanding of the position, experiences and feelings, between school and family.…”

Confessions of a Mad Professor: An Autoethnographic Consideration of Neuroatypicality, Extranormativity, and Education

“…Most evidence points to the fact that schools-and, I would add, universities-have not yet taken up mental health issues as a critical focus, a problem that has little prospect of being addressed in the current economic climate. Parents and teachers alike express disappointment with the way that mental health issues are typically administered in schools (Dowling & Pound, 1994;Rappaport & Carolla, 1999). In addition, many teachers have little understanding of how to recognize or respond to students with extranormative makeups (Madison, 1996).…”