Abstract
Parents' involvement is one factor that contributes to implementing career transition for students with learning disabilities (SLD) in the Special Education Integration Program (SEIP). The involvement in educating children at school could also nurture their psychological growth, sharing learning experiences, supporting and respecting the teachers' effort. This research explored parents' involvement and the obstacles they face in implementing career transition for students with learning disabilities (SLD) in Special Education Integration Program (SEIP) from a teacher's perspective in Malaysia. This research uses a qualitative and case study design. Data collection is through interviews with vocational subject teachers at SEIP. Four teachers at three secondary schools in Johore and Malacca were chosen based on a purposeful sampling technique. The data were analyzed using the ATLAS.ti 8 software. Findings show that parents' involvement at suburban schools is better than in urban schools. Parent's involvement in career transition for SLD in SEIP is from the execution of the Individual Education Program (IEP), supports and encouragement, the contribution of ideas and needs, commercializing works from SLD, and seeking job opportunities after finishing their work school. Besides that, the parents face a few obstacles in implementing career transition for SLD, such as not being interested in the activities held by the school, being busy with work and transferring all the responsibilities of educating SLD to the teachers at SEIP. Hopefully, this research could open up our minds to the importance of parents' involvement in accomplishing the career transition for SLD at SEIP. Parents' involvement in the career transition is vital to prepare the SLD with various skills before entering the workplace.
Highlights
A career transition is a comprehensive program that contains lessons and components of the services needed by a student with special needs to help them achieve their education, career and life goals independently (Mazzotti et al, 2014)
The results showed that there were five themes related to parental involvement, namely the implementation of Individualized Education Program (IEP), providing support and encouragement, contributing ideas and necessities, helping to market work, and finding employment opportunities for students with learning disabilities (SLD) after they finish school
Support from parents in implementing the career transition is critical to ensure that SLD is more motivated and ready to learn the vocational skills taught at Special Education Integration Program (SEIP)
Summary
A career transition is a comprehensive program that contains lessons and components of the services needed by a student with special needs to help them achieve their education, career and life goals independently (Mazzotti et al, 2014). Based on research by Alias (2014), students with special needs will benefit from the transition program. They were acquiring experience in specific fields of work, obtaining educational opportunities that suit their ability and potential and getting trained in a skill‐focused education program using technical and vocational curricula instead of following the existing academic curriculum. A study by Mustapha (2004) showed that vocational education is necessary for preparing students with special needs to compete in the job market. Vocational education and training are efforts to develop the ability of students with special needs in preparation for employment and acquire skills that enable them to get a job (Yusof et al, 2014)
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