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Parents’ Voices: Inclusion of Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Higher Education

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Polyphonic Construction of Smart Learning Ecosystems (SLERD 2022)

Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 908))

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Abstract

Making Higher Education more inclusive for students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities can bring significant benefits for the students themselves and for the academic community, in general. Family involvement is essential for the successful transition to post-scholar life, namely Higher Education. This paper presents and discusses the research and results of a study conducted with four Focus Group interviews involving 22 Portuguese parents of students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The main goal was to understand the perspectives and expectations of parents about the inclusion of their children in Higher Education. This study was carried out within the HiLives project scope, which includes, among its goals, to create strategies and provisions to facilitate and promote the inclusion of students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Higher Education, and the transition to an active and independent life. The results showed the prevalence of parents’ positive perceptions about the possibility of their sons/daughters attending Higher Education and allowed them to identify their preferred teaching models and methods, needs for support, barriers and incentives in this transition. This paper brings up some final recommendations for improving the processes of transition to Higher Education Institutions and their organization to be able of including students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by national funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project UIDB/05460/2020.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AVISPT21, R. Casimiros, 51-5, 3510-061, Viseu, Portugal

    Isabel Catarina Martins, Eulália Albuquerque & Paula Santos

  2. University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Oksana Tymoshchuk

  3. Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Geert Van Hove

Authors
  1. Isabel Catarina Martins
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  2. Oksana Tymoshchuk
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  3. Eulália Albuquerque
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  4. Paula Santos
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  5. Geert Van Hove
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oksana Tymoshchuk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Mihai Dascalu

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, University of Siena, Politiche e Cognitive, Siena, Italy

    Patrizia Marti

  3. Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Genova, Genova, Italy

    Francesca Pozzi

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Martins, I.C., Tymoshchuk, O., Albuquerque, E., Santos, P., Van Hove, G. (2023). Parents’ Voices: Inclusion of Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Higher Education. In: Dascalu, M., Marti, P., Pozzi, F. (eds) Polyphonic Construction of Smart Learning Ecosystems. SLERD 2022. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 908. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5240-1_11

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