Abstrato

Parental involvement in inclusive classrooms for students with learning disabilities at Omani schools as perceived by teachers.

Sahar El Shourbagi

Successful implementation of inclusive educational programs requires the involvement and the support from the parents of learning disabilities children at all level. The main aim of the study was to investigate the role of parents in educating their children in inclusive classrooms at Omani schools as perceived by teachers. Specifically, the present study aimed at: (1) examining the importance of parents' involvement in their children education at inclusive classrooms from the teachers’ perspectives, (2) identifying activities used by teachers or parents to get involved in their children's education at inclusive classrooms, (3) recognizing barriers of parents' involvement in their children's education at inclusive classrooms from teachers’ perspectives. The sample of the study included 100 participants. They were teachers of Learning Disabilities children in inclusive classroom at primary schools in Oman. The present study used descriptive research design which described data and characteristics about the population or phenomenon that being studied. The researcher developed appropriate measuring tools that serve the aims of the present study. The psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of these measuring tools have been examined. Findings showed that teachers believe that the parental involvement is important for the students. They also mentioned that using technology (like android applications) can facilitate the parental involvement. However, the findings showed that there are three types of barriers of parental involvement; school barriers (school rules, school schedule, etc.); parental barriers (time, the presence of baby in the family, feeling shame, etc.); other barriers (distance of schools from the work, relationship with the teacher, age of students, etc.).