Cyprus : special education and home school 'partnership'

Abstract

Using a case study approach, the paper attempts to draw a picture of the educational turmoils faced by a child with special needs in Cyprus at the end of the 20th century. The case study focuses on a 'failure' of the system rather than a 'success story' in an effort to highlight the problems faced by children, parents and professionals in a situation where the State does not provide adequate support for the needs of children like Chris and his family. Assumptions about existing 'partnership' schemes between home and school are challenged in the process, and issues of the unequal power relationship between parents and professionals are raised. All this is placed against a background sketching the development of compulsory education, in an attempt to probe questions about how children of all abilities and all kinds of background came to attend school and how their parents found themselves obliged to 'co-operate' with the school.