Abstract
Parental involvement has always been considered essential to educational processes and the development of learners with disabilities. However, within the body of available research, little is known about parental involvement in transitioning learners with intellectual disabilities from mainstream to special schools in Soweto, South Africa. For learners with intellectual disabilities, parental involvement may be particularly significant during transitioning from mainstream to special schools. However, this transitioning process is often experienced to be difficult for both learners and parents shortly after they learn of the intellectual disability due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of intellectual disabilities, including a lack of formalized and policy-supported transition programs in South Africa. Guided by Barbara Mowder’s Parent Development Theory, this study aimed to explore parents’ understanding of their role in transitioning learners with intellectual disabilities from mainstream to special schools. Using qualitative research, eight participants were purposefully sampled from one chosen mainstream primary school in Soweto, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Results indicated that parents reflected a high number of stress-related effects caused by minimal or lack of knowledge and understanding of intellectual disabilities, thus impacting their role in supporting these learners during the transition process. They had to accept the learner’s diagnosis irrespective of confusion about intellectual disabilities and lack of support from the school. These results suggest an urgent need for psychosocial intervention programs in mainstream schools for parents and learners with intellectual disabilities who are about to transition to special education.
Key words: intellectual disabilities; parental role; parental involvement; challenges; transition; the parent development theory