Parents of children with special educational needs: Ethical issues in partnerships and power

Abstract

This article focuses on professional relationships with parents of children with special educational needs. It is argued that the legislative framework for special educational needs which appropriately makes professional practices accountable to parents also results in focusing on individual children and can encourage parents to adopt adversarial approaches. A small sample of educational psychologists’ views regarding their experiences of advocacy resulting in children gaining access to resources beyond the level required by their special educational needs is reported. The author concludes that the results suggest that parents who co-operate in developing positive relationships with professionals are likely to achieve more successful outcomes for their children than parents who adopt an adversarial viewpoint.