Challenges to authentic home–school partnership for parents of children with ASD: a qualitative case study

ABSTRACTUsing an in-depth qualitative case study approach, this study examines parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as they tried to become involved in their children’s education and establish home–school partnerships to better support their children's needs in an elementary school in Turkey. Specifically, we focused on the school-level, structural barriers that these parents faced during the process. Our findings indicate that despite these parents’ unparalleled enthusiasm and advocacy in supporting their children’s education, their efforts to work in partnership with their children’s school was hindered by various structural barriers. This study questions traditional perceptions and practices employed by schools to promote home–school partnerships for parents of children with ASD and argues that these traditional ways of viewing partnership further complicate the situation and hinder possible authentic partnerships that might have occurred between schools and parents. This paper provides suggestions for school leaders, teachers and families, as well as for policymakers, to establish more authentic partnerships for parents of children with ASD.KEYWORDS: Authentic home–school partnershipsocial justiceschool leadershipchildren with ASD AcknowledgementsWe thank to all our participants for sparing valuable time and sharing their experiences with us. We are also grateful to the blind reviewers who helped us improve our paper through their detailed feedback.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Permissions and IRP approvalsIRB Number: 18-E-399.Institution: Ohio University.Notes1 We purposefully said ‘almost all parents’ because, as we later explain, parents whose children were enrolled in special education classrooms were marginalized from almost all the general school activities.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSerafettin GedikSerafettin Gedik Earning his PhD from Michigan State University, is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational Sciences at Amasya University. His research interests revolve around school leadership as it pertains to the issues of equity, school culture and community engagement.Bilal UrkmezDr. Bilal Urkmez is an Assistant Professor in counsellor education in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Ohio University. Dr. Urkmez holds the Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Counsellor Education programme from Michigan State University. His research interests are promoting evidence-based practices and improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. He is involved with the research team about parental engagement issues for parents who have children with disabilities.