Creating Collaborative Schools in the United States: A Review of Best Practices

Abstract

Collaboration is considered an essential characteristic for inclusive education to be effective and reflective of research-based best practices. General and special education teachers and related service personnel must work together and share goals, strategies, and physical space for students with and without disabilities to learn in inclusive settings. Teachers and parents must build trusting and collaborative partnerships in the delivery of inclusive education. Finally, students with and without disabilities must work together and support one another in building effective schools. We offer research-based strategies for and examples of effective collaborative relationships and outcomes from those relationships.

Collaboration between In-Service School Teachers and Families in the Context of Inclusive Education: A Review of the Recent Literature

“…Examining the constraints of teachers -parents' collaboration, Mereiou (2016) revealed that frequently parents feel intimidated by the use of professional jargon. Often teachers and experts use documents that are full of discipline-specific concepts, terminology, and acronyms, making it challenging for people who have not had similar training or extensive experience in special education to understand them (Solone et al, 2020). Mereiou (2016) also underlined teachers' inadequate awareness of the needs of culturally diverse families.…”

“…Research regarding family-educator collaboration has revealed various common themes related to best practices that educators should implement for a successful collaboration. Initially, educators should be reliable, show care for their students and honor each family's language, ethnicity, and culture (Fish, 2008;Ford et al, 2016;Friend & Cook, 2016;Solone et al, 2020). Additionally, mutual respect and trust between teachers and parents act as a catalyst for students' best results (Solone et al, 2020).…”

“…Initially, educators should be reliable, show care for their students and honor each family's language, ethnicity, and culture (Fish, 2008;Ford et al, 2016;Friend & Cook, 2016;Solone et al, 2020). Additionally, mutual respect and trust between teachers and parents act as a catalyst for students' best results (Solone et al, 2020). Subsequently, they should acknowledge families as experts on their children, work together to develop goals and solutions, assign responsibilities, and engage them in shared decision making (Friend & Cook, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, systematic communication is another important parameter for successful collaboration. Educators should communicate with parents promptly using communication methods that work for each family (Solone et al, 2020). Particularly, communication in the school context consists of two types, one-way or twoway communication (Berger, 2008).…”

“…However, the collaboration process between schools and parents or caregivers in the context of special education oftentimes proves to be difficult (Mereoiu et al, 2016). Many parents feel unwelcome and uncomfortable participating in their children's education (Fish, 2006) or perceive themselves as passive recipients of professional decisions since their voices are not heard (Solone et al, 2020). Moreover, many studies have revealed that parents feel unprepared to respond to special education jargon as they do not fully understand the terms or issues discussed in the meetings with professionals (Fish, 2006;Francis et al, 2016;Friend & Cook, 2016) and feel ill-equipped to attend to the educational needs of their children (Hammond et al, 2008).…”