Productive teacher-parent partnerships are important to successful student outcomes and rely on positive teacher-parent communication, particularly when students have disability. Through semi-structured focus group and individual interviews, 17 parents of students with disability provided first-hand accounts of teacher communication that…

This article presents new insights into the views of families regarding the educational opportunities for their children in special school settings. It reports on a study designed to capture the perspectives of families regarding the opportunities to consult and engage with teachers on the education of their child or children with disabilities…

Productive parent-teacher partnerships are critical to positive student outcomes. This is especially so for students with disability in inclusive settings. Relationships between teachers and parents of students with disability, however, are often fraught, and improved parent engagement is thought to be one solution. Semi-structured interviews with…

Effective parent-teacher partnerships improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from different backgrounds. We conducted interviews with 17 Chinese parents of autistic children attending Australian kindergartens/schools to understand their experiences.…

The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of the TOGETHER: Growing Children's Social and Emotional Competence programme. This programme was designed to build a more collaborative relationship between educators and parents so that they could, together, develop children's social and emotional competence skills by using positive behaviour…

This article presents the findings from interviews with thirteen parents of students with severe vision impairment who attend mainstream schools in Queensland, Australia. Participants were interviewed about their experiences in advocating for their children in a range of educational contexts. These experiences varied greatly depending on a number…

Children learn in the context of relationships with important caregivers. The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector increasingly recognises that supporting strong relationships between families and ECEC services is a powerful way to improve children's educational, health and wellbeing outcomes. We report findings from a study which, via…

This study's purpose was to elucidate the experiences of educators raising and responding to child-related concerns within Early Childhood Education and Care settings. Parent satisfaction with interactions, educators' ratings of how well interactions went, and educator confidence related to raising or responding to concerns, were examined.…

Parent-teacher partnerships involve open and frequent communications. Successful partnerships are important contributors to the learning outcomes of students with diverse needs. However, parents and teachers often have limited opportunities to develop a shared understanding of the student on the autism spectrum and to have conversations about…

Effective parent-teacher partnerships can improve outcomes for autistic students. Yet, we know little about what effective partnerships look like for parents of autistic children from diverse backgrounds. Using participatory methods, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 Somali mothers of autistic children attending Australian…

This paper seeks to better understand how unanticipated disruption influences teacher agency and professionalism. Drawing on a conceptual model of teacher agency the paper examines data from teacher focus groups conducted in one Australian K-12 school to understand the lived experience of teachers (n = 50) during an initial COVID-19 lockdown…

Partnerships are one of the key practice principles guiding the practice of early years teachers in Australia, and are explicitly noted in the policy frameworks. However, teachers working with children in hospital face many complexities in establishing and maintaining partnerships with families when facing serious, and at times, life-threatening…

This paper qualitative examines a holistic framework for teaching in the digital era. The examination is based on teachers' perspectives of their career, that is, what core features can be said to characterise teacher's practice, across contexts, cultures and subjects. Semi-structured interviews of expert teachers, specifically from Australia,…

Family engagement in children's learning is an evidence-based approach supporting student learning. This study examines four primary school teachers' family engagement practice, within a non-dominant community. Utilising the framework of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), the teachers examined their partnerships with families,…

Effective collaborative engagement between diverse stakeholders is vital to supporting the developmental and educational opportunities and outcomes of students with disability. While Australian policy and legislation mandates collaborative engagement between a teacher and other members of a student's support network, the extent of data examining…