Visions and decisions: parents of children with disability visioning and navigating the education journey

From as early as a prenatal or postnatal diagnosis, parents of a child with Down syndrome begin considering potential educational futures. It is not as simple as pursuing what a child is legally entitled to or what the research evidence supports; there are a range of internal and external properties that influence parents’ hopes, goals, and decisions. This constructivist grounded theory research involved 32 parents (from 28 families) across four Australian states to analyse their main concerns and actions in relation to the education of their child with Down syndrome. The experiences of these parents, whose children were in the primary or secondary school years across a range of settings, can be theorised as a process of visioning and navigating the education journey, with three core categories of findings: Visioning a Preferred Path; Navigating the Visioned Journey; and Re-visioning the Route. Findings provide insight into the complexities of planning and implementing schooling for a child with disability, which can inform reforms required within schools and education systems.