Work at school: Teacher and parent perceptions about children's participation

Objective: Little research has been carried out on the behaviours that lead to children's successful participation in work roles at school. The objective of this study was to identify some of the elements critical to participation of students by listening to the perspectives of teachers and parents of children who have difficulties with school work. The study is part of a larger research project aimed at developing an assessment tool to describe the participation of children at school with particular reference to students who experience a difficulty with learning. Participants: 50 teachers and 44 parents of children referred to occupational therapy for problems with school work. Methods: A survey approach using an open ended written response questionnaire. Results: The findings indicated that there are core elements of participation in work that are commonly perceived as crucial by teachers and parents. These included common definitions of work participation with the emergence of several themes relative to work roles and meaning, opportunity for inclusion in school work, risk taking and enjoyment as part of work, and thinking processes. Differences between teacher and parent responses related to perceived reasons for a difficulty with participation, activities which require high levels of participation and aspects of participation that are most difficult to change. Conclusion: This study provided descriptive data on which to build further research into children's experiences of work, and highlights the need for occupational therapists to consider perceptions of key stakeholders when assessing children's work ability at school.