Parental perspectives of home-schooling of children with special educational needs and disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review

The purpose of this paper is to review recent literature on parental perspectives of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the home-schooling of children with special educational needs and disabilities, as well as to consider implications for their education and well-being. Eleven papers were reviewed, published between 2020 and 2021, selected according to a systematic protocol from three widely used online databases. Analysis of the reviewed papers found that transitioning to home-schooling during the pandemic had negative consequences for most of the children, as well as for their parents, though a small but significant number reported positive consequences. Three key areas of concern were identified in the analysis: balancing home-schooling with parent work activities; parent relationships with schools and support services and agencies and home-schooling effects on the well-being and mental health of parents and children.     

Exploring preservice teachers' attitudes towards inclusion

This study responds to a call for research into existing teacher-education programmes and their impact on teacher candidates' attitudes. An inclusive education course that examined the difference between ‘soft inclusion’ (inclusion which addresses the issue of place rather than substance of learning) and genuine inclusion was used to explore pre-existing teacher candidate beliefs and assumptions. Using the Opinions Relative to Mainstreaming-Adapted, four classes of students from two different teacher-preparation programmes within the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, Canada, were surveyed pre- and post-course. A statistically significant change in the scores was found for all of the classes. A significant difference was also found between the changes in scores of the two programme groups. Results indicate that the course was successful at shifting preservice students towards inclusion and gave the students a foundation that will hopefully translate into practice.