"I seemed to understand": Mothers' Experiences of the Schooling of Their Children with Multiple Disabilities

Abstract

Mothers of children with multiple disabilities have unique and important things to tell us about their children's schooling. In this work, the overarching question asks: How do the mothers of children with multiple disabilities narrate their experiences with their children's schooling, and what insights can their stories provide? Within a feminist framework that acknowledges participating mothers as “expert witnesses” (Traustadottir, 1991, p. 216) with important insights, this study employs a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to develop the themes that, taken together, can be said to describe these participants' experiences. Four mothers of children with multiple disabilities were interviewed in an open-ended qualitative manner, and their experiences are thematized in this thesis. It is my hope that the stories so generously offered by the participants, and the themes which arise from them, can play a part in guiding those involved in the education of students with multiple disabilities, in changing our practice and policies in order to truly include children with disabilities and their caregivers in our schools.