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Effects of Attendance at a New Zealand Residential School for Students with Emotional-behavioural Difficulties: The Views of Former Students and their Parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Michael Townsend  and
Keri Wilton
Michael Townsend*
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Keri Wilton
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
*
Michael Townsend, University of Auckland. E-mail: mar.townsend@auckland.ac.nz
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Abstract

Former students (34) of a residential school for students with emotional-behavioural difficulties, and their parents, were interviewed to determine their perceptions about the educational and social adjustment of the students. Following reintegration into mainstream schools, or work, the majority of the former students were reported as coping at least adequately with the social and academic demands of their lives. Both former students and their parents held positive perceptions regarding the students’ special school experience, and in general believed that the students’ attendance at the special school had facilitated their subsequent development and adjustment. The results are discussed in terms of the need for this first study in New Zealand to be supplemented by further research to validate the beliefs of former students and their parents, and some of the major attendant methodological problems which confront research in this area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Australasian Journal of Special Education , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , 2006 , pp. 145 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The Australian Association of Special Education 2006

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