Perspectives of teachers and parents of Chinese American students with disabilities about their home–school communication

This exploratory qualitative study aimed to examine the perspectives of teachers and parents of Chinese American students with disabilities regarding home–school communication in the special education field. The author recruited 2 parents and 2 teachers for this study. Different sources of data including observations, interviews, documentations, and e-mail exchanges were gathered and analyzed to identify components of effective interactions from both groups of participants. Emerging themes were identified: advocating for their child’s education, mismatched expectations, barriers to communication, collaboration, and perspectives on building effective communication. Challenges to positive parent–teacher interactions included unstated assumptions about communication, communication barriers, and mismatched expectations will be discussed. Implications of these findings will be provided.