Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

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

17^th World Summit on Positive Psychology, Psychotherapy & Cognitive Behavioral Sciences

May 01-03, 2017 Toronto, Canada

Sahar El Shourbagi

Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother

Abstract :

Statement of the Problem: Recent statistics shows that the proportion of students with disabilities who spend 80% or more of the school day in general education classrooms has substantially increased from 34% in 1990 to 61% in 2011. In Sultanate of Oman this number was increased too. Despite these optimistic statistics, the process of inclusion has been faced by many challenges: A limited number of certified special education personnel; lack of proper training for teachers in mainstream classrooms and the lack of parental support in children�s school. In the Omani context, research about the parental involvement in the mainstream classrooms was rarely conducted. Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate the parental involvement in educating their children with disabilities in inclusive classrooms at Omani schools as perceived by teachers. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Researcher employs the use of a survey questionnaire to investigate the parent involvement. Quantitative statistical methods are used to analyze the findings of the data collected on the Likert-scale used in the survey questionnaire. The instrument used in the study was adopted from a study recently conducted in Oman by Al Mashaykhi (2015). Findings: Participants� have high perception of the importance of parental involvement in the inclusive classroom but low perception of the practices they use to be involved in these classes. Besides that, findings of Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, among importance and practices of parental involvement showed that these variables correlated negatively. Conclusion & Significance: Descriptive analyses showed that teachers perceive the parental involvement in the inclusive classroom is important to support the education for the children with disabilities, but the study showed also that less action were taken from the parent to activate this involvement. The researcher recommends adding qualitative methods to discuss more related issues with teachers, parents and other stakeholders.

Biography :

Sahar El Shourbagi has finished her Phd in Psycho-pedagogy from University of Montreal. Currently she is working as an Assistant Professor in Faculty of Education, Sultan Qaboos University and Department of Psychology in Oman. She was expertise in the mainstream classrooms and passion in improving the education of pupils with disabilities. She conducted many researches about teaching and educating students with disabilities, using the multimedia in teaching them and awareness of parental involvement.

Email: sahar@squ.edu.om