Parental involvement in education politics : the case of disabled children

Abstract

This paper explores Greek-Cypriot parents’ role in influencing developments regarding the education of disabled children in Cyprus. It mainly comments upon parents’ conceptualisations of disabled children’s rights which guided their responses to educational, social and political issues related to disability. The historical and interpretative nature of this paper is achieved by building arguments through interpreting qualitative data covering the period 1970-2007. Four periods associated with important developments were identified to facilitate understanding of parental involvement in politics: (i) early forms of parental mobilisation; (ii) parent groups acting as ‘non-pressure’ groups; (iii) parental power through networking; and (iv) resolving issues of identity and power between parent pressure groups. The paper ends with a critical discussion of parental involvement in education politics in relation to the nature of parent associations which constitute this evolving pressure group.