Special Education Teacher Preparation for Family–Professional Partnerships: Results From a National Survey of Teacher Educators

Abstract

Family–professional partnerships (FPPs) are an important, federally mandated part of the American education system that benefit all students, but especially students with disabilities. Although special education teacher preparation programs offer a viable and sustainable way to enhance FPPs, little is known about the degree to which these programs address FPPs within their curricula. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which special education teacher preparation programs address FPPs. A total of 113 special education faculty members across 52 institutions responded to a national online survey addressing this topic. Results indicated (a) a disconnect in the value and implementation of FPP-related knowledge and skills at the program and individual faculty levels and (b) patterns of inconsistent FPP-related content coverage across undergraduate and graduate offerings as well as across FPP-specific and non-FPP-specific coursework. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The Nature and Extent of Special Education Law in Teacher Preparation

“…The remaining completed responses (n = 26 or 38% of targeted participants) were included in the results of this study. This response rate is higher than response rates of recent national, online surveys of teacher educators, which ranged from 30% to 31.7% (e.g., Flockton & Cunningham, 2021;Kyzar et al, 2019;McCulloch et al, 2019).…”

Factor Analysis of the Attitude Toward Parent Involvement Survey With Preservice Teachers

“…More than half of the deans indicated their programs, particularly those with special and early childhood (EC) education, attended to some topics in parent involvement. Kyzar et al (2019) found that there was generally a low level of coverage of parent involvement–related topics in special education teacher education preparation programs. Curricula were often ill-defined (Gomila et al, 2018), or the topic of parent involvement was given inadequate space in preservice programs due to time constraints (Mutton et al, 2018).…”

Legal and Research Considerations regarding the Importance of Developing and Nurturing Trusting Family-Professional Partnerships in Special Education Consultation

“…These challenges include role dynamics between both parties, including a "power over" approach used by professionals over families that often results in a power imbalance in the partnership, with families reporting feeling unequal in all aspects of student educational planning, specifically making decisions regarding addressing student needs (Bezdek, Summers, & Turnbull., 2010;Mueller, 2017;Zeitlin & Curcic, 2014). Much of this power imbalance is attributed to professionals reported negative perceptions of family members (Colker, 2015), inadequate professional preparation regarding partnering with families (Kyzar et al, 2019), and culturally biased professional processes and assumptions (Holcomb-McCoy & Bryan, 2010;Kalyanpur & Harry, 2012). Meanwhile, other partnership obstacles are specific to addressing student needs, including disagreement over student services and discrepant views of the student (Lake & Billingsley, 2000;Mueller et al, 2008).…”

“…Simply put, professionals lack the specifics of how to practice trust with families, including consultant facilitative behaviors that foster and repair trust, when needed. In fact, a lack of pre-service preparation for professionals (e.g., teachers, psychologists) is identified as one of the major barriers to building and maintaining family-professional partnerships (Kyzar et al, 2019;Mueller, 2017). Not surprisingly, professionals identify family engagement as one of the most challenging aspects of their jobs (Markow, Macia, & Lee, 2013).…”

“…The family-professional partnership (FPP) in special education is often described as one of the most important collaborative partnerships in today's schools (Kyzar, Mueller, Grace, & Haines, 2019;Mueller, 2017;Turnbull, Turnbull, Erwin, Soodak, & Shogren, 2015). For the majority of students, the family system provides early access to an environment that fosters social/emotional development, and meaningful relationships where secure attachments can be developed and opportunities for nurturing can exist.…”