Parental Involvement in the Education of Learners with Intellectual Disabilities in Kenya

Josephine Oranga – Kisii University, Kenya
Enock Obuba – Kisii University, Kenya
Inviolata Sore – St. John’s University, USA
Corresponding Author: josephineoranga@kisiiuniversity.ac.ke

Received October 30, 2020; Revised November 28, 2020; Accepted December 1, 2020

Abstract: Whilst there has been a lot of research on learners with physical, hearing and visual disabilities in Kenya, not much research has focused on learners with intellectual disabilities. The research from which this paper is drawn ventured into a relatively less researched area, namely, parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities in Kenya. This paper presents partial findings of an in-depth phenomenological investigation into the state of parental involvement in the education of learners with intellectual disabilities in Kenya. The study was guided by Parental Involvement theory as postulated by Jane Epstein. Cluster, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were utilized to select 24 parents. Data were collected through face to face semi-structured interviews and analysed with the help of ATLAS ti software package. The findings revealed that parents of learners with intellectual disabilities provided a safe home environment, transported their children to school, managed their children’s behaviour and provided, albeit to a given extent, learning resources and subsistence. However, weighed against Jane Epstein’s components of Parental Involvement the involvement fellshort of expectations, and even more so as concerns learners with intellectual disabilities. From the findings, parents did not get involved in their children’s school activities, did not expose them to educational environments, they did not volunteer at school or provide sufficient learning resources/subsistence, they did not enlist as members of school committees and associations, and they did not engage in communication with the school to enquire about their children’s academic progress and wellbeing.